Brewers Journal Canada - Spring 2022

THE

MAGAZINE

FOR

THE

CANADIAN

BREWING

INDUSTRY

BREWERS J O U R N A L

C A N A D A

SPRING 2022 | ISSUE 24 ISSN 2398-6948

BENCH BREWING CO. A Belgian-inspired, sustainability-driven farmhouse brewery in the stunning Niagara Benchlands

10 | RTD BEVERAGES: WHAT’S NEXT?

28 | THE ENVIRONMENT: HOW TO SAVE EARTH

32 | 2 CROWS BREWING: FLYING HIGH IN NOVA SCOTIA

WHAT DEFINES YOU

D

LEADER

uring the last few weeks I’ve been fortunate to visit several breweries, of several sizes in several countries. And it got me pondering about some thoughts my colleague Velo Mitrovich in the UK shared on defining success.

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He recalled when he was a kid he’d go fishing with his dad down at the Shelter Island fishing pier in San Diego. In hindsight, by his own admission, his family was pretty broke, but fishing was one thing they could afford. Because of their dad’s work – he was a fishmonger – about the only time he had off was in the evenings so that’s when they’d go to Shelter Island. Located close to where the Pacific entered the harbour, he says you could smell the sea with highlights of salt, fish, and kelp in the air.

Directly across the street from the free fishing pier were about four or five expensive hotels with even more expensive restaurants. You could smell the fat from the steaks being grilled and hear laughter as people would sip their cocktails. Combine the smell of the grilled steaks with that of the sea and to him at my young age, he figured that was the smell of success. Someday…yeah someday when they made it, they’d experience it all.

In talking with brewers both here and in Europe, we all seem to have our own definition of what success is. Seeing your beer on the top shelf of your local store, making that first million in sales, or as one small brewer says, they would know he reached success when they could quit their second job. I think a problem many of us fall into however, is that we see all of us as this col-

lective group of brewers – not individuals – so in our eyes, our success is measured the same. But a friend of his, who works with food entrepreneurs, says that the worst thing you can do as a founder is to aim for someone else’s definition of success.

They say that the pursuit of another’s goal has been the death of far too many brands.

Across the globe we’ve seen breweries make the mistake of falling into this trap of seeing their success defined by someone else. We’ve seen breweries target growth while forgetting what made them successful in the first place, and they’ve suffered as a result.

Back to Velo in Shelter Island. A few preCovid years ago he was showing his wife the fishing pier, sharing memories of his father, and told her about the steak houses. “One day,” I told her. “One day when I’ve made it, we’ll eat at one.”

“I don’t know what you consider ‘making it’ but we’re doing okay. Why not now?” she said. Here was a problem, however. While my measure of success hadn’t changed, San Diego had. The restaurants were all gone except for one which was vegetarian. About five blocks away they finally found a restaurant for the yachting crowd which did steaks and they went in. But sadly, he says it was the worst steak in his life, even worse than what they got in army boot camp..

So when you think about your success, remember that as you and your business ages and grows your definition of what success is might change. Success isn’t a word carved in stone, be flexible with it.

Cheers!

Tim Sheahan Editor

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CONTENTS

Comment | The Beer Market Confessions of a ‘Beerosceptic’. David Gluckman shares over 40 years of branding experience in the beverages industry.

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Focus | RTD Beverages Flavoursum LLC goes into depth as to what’s next in the RTD alcoholic beverage space.

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Comment | Workplace Safety As the beer industry has grown, so has the need for better information, protocols, and innovations to keep industry workers safe, explains Alexandra Skinner.

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Sector | Malt Maltster are working with brewers to showcase how the availability of novel malting barley varieties are helping jump-start fresh flavour profiles in the beers they brew.

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Science | Foam Stability Rob Mccaig, a senior advisor, technical services at first key consulting, takes a closer look at potential issues and various solutions when it comes to foam.

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Focus | Botany of Beer Giuseppe Caruso teaches forest botany at the Mediterranean University in Reggio Calabria and biology and agricultural biotechnology at the Istituto Tecnico Agrario “V. Emanuele II” in Catanzaro, Italy. Here he breaks down the Botany of Beer using excerpts from his latest book.

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In Tribute | John Picard John Picard, the founder of Ramblin’ Road Brewery Farm, recently passed away. Wayne s. Roberts had the privilege of helping bring his brand to life and shares the story of overcoming innumerable obstacles to achieve a triumphant launch and consistent growth.

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Homebrew Journal | The Sector Reimagined Finding inspiration for growth and new beginnings within homebrewing

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Flying High

2 Crows Brewing in Halifax, Nova Scotia remains a brand focused on quality, education, and transparency

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BREWERS JOURNAL CANADA

CONTACTS Tim Sheahan Editor tim@brewersjournal.ca +44 (0)1442 780 592 Jakub Mulik Staff photographer Johnny Leung Canada Partnerships johnny@brewersjournal.ca Sheena Strauss Homebrew Journal knwl.on.tap@gmail.com Richard Piotrowski Publisher Richard@brewersjournal.ca Pints with purpose

Bench Brewing’s vision is to produce premium quality beer that embraces old world brewing techniques while embracing the local surroundings of the Niagara Benchlands

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Brewing & The Environment

Tim O’Rourke, a Master brewer with over 35 years experience, argues that it is up to all of us in the brewing industry to take responsibility and look after and cherish our planet.

42 Affecting Change Mascot brewery’s Aaron Prothro wants to see more more acceptance, more accessibility, and more inclusivity in craft beer, and is doing so by starting at the top.

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Magdalena Lesiuk Graphic Design GraphMad@gmail.com CFJ Media 2275 Upper Middle Rd E #101, Oakville, ON L6H 0C3

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be: reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without the express prior written consent of the publisher. The Brewers Journal Canada ISSN 2398-6948 is part of Reby Media, 42 Crouchfield, Hemel Hempstead, Herts HP1 1PA. It is published quarterly in Canada by CFJ Media, 2275 Upper Middle Rd E #101, Oakville, ON L6H 0C3, Canada. Subscription records are maintained at CFJ Media, 2275 Upper Middle Rd E #101, Oakville, ON L6H 0C3, Canada. The Brewers Journal accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of statements or opinion given within the Journal that is not the expressly designated opinion of the Journal or its publishers.

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COMMENT

THE BEER MARKET

I

IN 1973, WHEN NEOPHYTE DRINKS ENTREPRENEURS DAVID GLUCKMAN & HUGH SEYMOUR-DAVIES FIRST CONCOCTED BAILEYS IRISH CREAM IN THEIR TINY SOHO OFFICE, THEY WERE CONFIDENT THEY HAD AN ORIGINAL HIT ON THEIR HANDS. THEIR UNSHAKABLE BELIEF IN THE IDEA ENABLED THEM TO NEGOTIATE SOME ROCKY ROADS ON BAILEYS’ JOURNEY TO SUCCESS. AND DAVID’S COMPELLING AUTOBIOGRAPHY IS CRAMMED WITH ENTERTAINING ANECDOTES DRAWN FROM OVER FORTY YEARS OF BRAND CREATION IN AND AROUND THE DRINKS BUSINESS. HERE, HE SHARES SOME OF THEM.

’ve worked in the drinks business since 1969. I was lucky enough to peak early when we developed Baileys Irish Cream in 1973.

Mind you, it took another decade for it to become universally acknowledged as a success.

There have been other wins in wine and spirits. Le Piat d’Or was a hugely popular wine brand in the UK, Japan, and Canada too, in the 1970s. The Singleton is now the fourth biggest-selling single malt whisky in the world. And it was developed on a shoestring in the mid-1980s.

Other brands in my portfolio include Sheridan’s, Ciroc and Tanqueray Ten, plus many others that succeeded in various markets worldwide.

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CONFESSIONS OF A ‘BEEROSCEPTIC’

SPRING 2022

But beer was the one area where I have no claims to fame. And it’s not for want of trying.

I suppose my experience of the beer market was most appropriately summed up by Richard Branson in 1988. Having ventured into Cola and Vodka earlier in that decade, he was looking at an excursion into lager.

I talked to consumers across the UK and they all thought Virgin Lager was a great idea. Richard Branson was their kind of guy and Virgin was a trendy brand.

After all, he’d pivoted from ‘sex, drugs and rock & roll’ (the music business) to the unexpected leap into airlines. It seemed he could do no wrong.

Something bothered me when I presented to Branson at our one and only meeting. I said that I felt that for a Virgin Lager to succeed, it would need to offer something different and distinctive.

“No.” he replied, “As long as my beer can match products like Budweiser, that will be enough. I don’t need to offer anything different. The Virgin brand will do the heavy lifting.”.

And there was his mistake. The Cola failed. It offered nothing over Coke. The Vodka failed for the same reason. And fortunately for Branson (and me, I think), he never went ahead with the lager. Perhaps the writing was on the wall for his first two ventures?

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It was something new. It was different. It was transformative. And it was also incredibly simple.

I think most of the major beer brands follow the ‘Branson Budweiser formula’. They bend over backwards not to be different. And not to commit themselves to a new message.

Back in the 1980s I was working on a project for UK brewers, Watneys. Now Watneys was a toxic beer brand in the UK through its attempt to sell keg bitter in the late 1960s.

But I thought that if we brought it back with a great-tasting beer and a powerful message, people would enjoy forgiving Watneys.

I borrowed an idea from the US whiskey brand Jack Daniel’s and proposed Watneys ‘Sour-Mash’ beer. I wanted to pick up some of the signals, and flavours, of American whiskey which had become a hot item in Europe at that time.

And my brewing friends told me it was a legitimate brewing term.

After a very short pitch, I was thrown out of the client’s office.

That was 34 years ago. And yet to this day, I still think that Watneys ‘Sour-Mash’ is a great idea.

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There are anodyne claims about brands being ‘Original’, ‘Supreme’, ‘Fully-brewed’, ‘Established in 1527’, ‘Fine Pilsener’ and so on.

None of them do what Corona did and said “Look at me. I’m different. Try me.” Even the aggressive Brewdog brand majors on its rebellious independence and avoids a brave product story.

I’ll leave you with two brands that I have admired for years. And in both cases, I bought them at first sight.

I love Smokehead Scotch whisky. Its collection of controversial adjectives persuaded me to buy 2 bottles on first viewing.

And the product did what it said on the package. It was a harsh, challenging, distinctive whisky. I’m now a regular buyer.

But I think Smokehead has bowed to some kind of pressure, and the latest packaging is a pale shadow of its former self. It has become dumbed down, probably in consumer research.

The other brand, Lift, I encountered in a supermarket in Australia. It talked to me directly about its harsh, aggressive citrus flavour. It was love at first sight and I bought it wherever I saw it available. It did not disappoint.

I think brewers can take a leaf out of the Smokehead/Lift playbook.

STEAM-BREWED “STRAIGHT & TRUE”

If you come into a market with no prior reputation, you have to try harder. You need to do something different.

Looking at shelves in liquor stores and supermarkets, I am amazed how little attempts brewers make to projecting their products as different.

WATNEYS FULL FLAVOUR

SO

UR MASH

STEAM BEER

330ml 5% alc. Vol

STEAM-BREWED “STRAIGHT & TRUE”

The moral: if you come into a market with no prior reputation, you have to try harder.

You need to do something different.

I love the Corona story. The simple act of jamming a wedge of lime or lemon into the neck of a Corona bottle turned a fairly average Mexican beer into a global brand.

They could set out to offer consumers products that are distinctive and different. And broadcast that difference on the packaging.

There’s too much faux psychology in marketing these days and not enough product differentiation.

Don’t get too carried away trying to find out who your consumers are and what motivates them. Broadcast a powerful product story on your package and let consumers come to you.

For the full stories of all my wine, spirit and beer adventures, check out my book on www.thatshitwillneversell.com and order it on Amazon.

About The Author David Gluckman was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa on 1st November 1938, the day Sea Biscuit and War Admiral fought out the race of the century at Pimlico Park, Baltimore. Educated in Johannesburg, he joined a local advertising agency after university and soon fell in love with the business.

He made the pilgrimage to London in 1961 and worked as an account executive on Procter & Gamble, Kerrygold, Lyons teas and several Unilever accounts. Always a frustrated copywriter, he escaped into product development in 1969, met a man from IDV and his life changed forever.

He lives in London with his wife, Barbara Bryant, has one daughter, Romany Turner, and a grandson, Marlo.

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WHAT’S NEXT IN RTD ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES? INSIGHTS FROM FLAVORSUM

FOCUS

SALES OF RTD ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES CONTINUED TO EXPAND IN THE LAST YEAR, DESPITE PANDEMICRELATED CLOSURES OF BARS AND RESTAURANTS. INTERNATIONAL WINE & SPIRIT RESEARCH (IWSR) PREDICTS RTDS WILL DOUBLE THEIR MARKET SHARE BY 2025, MOVING TO 8 PERCENT OF THE GLOBAL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE MARKET (UP FROM 4 PERCENT IN 2020). THE TREND REFLECTS THE BROADENING AVAILABILITY AND VARIETY AVAILABLE TO A GROWING AUDIENCE ATTRACTED TO THE CONVENIENCE AND TASTE OF A RTD ALCOHOLIC DRINK.

A

recent survey from Bacardi revealed that more than 40 percent of consumers worldwide plan to drink a RTD adult beverage in 2022.

The category generates stronger appeal in the U.S., where 80 percent of adults plan to explore their RTD alcoholic beverage options at retail or online.

What’s fueling RTD alcoholic beverage growth in North America? And what’s next for a category that pushes the boundaries of the alcoholic beverage landscape? The FlavorSum team recently explored the RTD market and consumer dynamics in North America. Here are notable insights about opportunities bubbling up for producers.

‘Craft’ is a Frequent Positioning in RTD Alcoholic Beverage Innovation About 2 out of 10 RTD Alcoholic Beverages launched in North America in the last

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year carried a ‘craft’ claim, according to Mintel’s Global New Products Database (GNPD). Is ‘craft’ a compelling point of difference for RTDs? The claim carries some weight with consumers who link the term ‘craft’ with ideas like independent ownership, small batches, higher-quality ingredients, care with distilling or brewing, and unique flavours.

But skepticism (and lawsuits) about the ‘craft’ terminology can dilute the value of the positioning.

Savvy consumers are reading labels to find out the distilling location of RTD spirit-based beverages. ‘Bottled by’ or ‘produced by’ on a drink positioned as ‘craft’ can create suspicions that a brand is using the term as a marketing gimmick. Checking craft guidelines from the American Craft Spirits Association, the American Distilling Institute, or Canada’s Craft Distillery Policy can help producers deliver a craft beverage that meets expectations.

RTDS CAN ANSWER THE CALL FOR HEALTHIER ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES Healthier alcoholic RTDs have a market: about one in three Americans between the ages of 22 and 44 surveyed

by Mintel say they’re interested. In response, RTD innovators are increasingly highlighting their launches’ reduced sugars, carbs, and calories. Sugar-free and reduced-sugar claims are rising, represented in 20 percent of launches last year, up from 3 percent in 2018. Low carb callouts occurred on 3 percent of launches, with low-calorie claims showing up on 4 percent. Even if not explicitly labeled as ‘low calorie,’ RTDs often promote calorie counts on the front of the RTD can or bottle. And Innova Market Insights indicate that many RTD launches across the North American landscape target 100 calories or less.

INTEREST IN SUSTAINABILITY CAN AFFECT RTD BRAND CHOICE Growing concern about how caring for the Earth affects the climate and environment prompts consumers to seek out more sustainable options in all purchasing decisions. In a 2021 Mintel survey, 65% of adults in Canada say that food and drink products’ impact on the environment is increasingly influencing their purchasing decisions. And a study by IBM and the National Retail Federation showed that 7 in 10 North American consumers agree that sustainability or eco-friendliness is an important brand attribute.

Two ways that alcoholic drinks brands are innovating to align with interest in sustainability include:

recyclable packaging

organic ingredients

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For packaging, most RTD alcoholic beverage producers in North America continue to turn to cans or beverages. Mintel’s GNPD shows more than 97 percent of new RTD products introduced in the last 3 years launched in traditional packaging. But some recent innovations use bags-in-boxes or flexible pouches to differentiate from competitors and promote a more sustainable carbon footprint.

Although few organic RTDs are available in retail and tracked by Mintel, some organic brands are launching through e-commerce. Retail launches peaked in 2020 when almost 10 brands introduced organic RTDs. Some producers focused on organic ingredients are placing lower priority on other RTD health attributes, delivering higher ABVs, calories, and sugar content.

SPIRIT-BASED RTDS ON THE RISE RTD innovation starts with choosing the alcohol base. Sugar, malt, and grain neutral spirits form the base for the majority of RTD beverages. But more than 35 percent of North American RTD launches had wine or spirit bases last year, up from 16 percent in 2019. Wine, vodka, and gin represented the top 3 choices, accounting for almost 60 percent of the new product activity, followed by whiskey, rum, tequila, and brandy.

The increased use of spirit bases reflects a trend toward cocktail-inspired RTDs. Last year, 27 percent of RTDs launched used a cocktail positioning in the product name, like Gin & Tonic, Margarita, or Mojito, often available in multiple flavours.

The choice of alcohol base has implications for a producer’s business model beyond taste and marketing potential.

Formulators considering neutral alcohols, spirits, or wine bases for their brand need a distilling license and a processing facility with appropriate equipment and ventilation because vapor by-products are explosive.

Additional considerations when selecting a RTD base are taxes and distribution opportunities. RTD alcoholic beverages made with a spirit or wine usually face a higher tax rate than sugar or malt and have narrower distribution channels (usually wine or liquor stores).

FLAVOURS AND MORE (COMPLEX) FLAVOURS KEEP CONSUMERS TRYING RTD ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES According to Mintel’s GNPD, North American producers launched more than 200 flavours

of RTD alcoholic drinks last year. Brands continue to feature singular, core flavours like lime, lemon, mango, raspberry, and strawberry, but these 5 flavours accounted for less than 15 percent of new products.

flavour possibilities in RTD alcoholic beverage category is analogous to the ice cream category. Producers can draw on flavours ranging from simply sweet to bright, spicy, nostalgic, or indulgent.

Flavour combinations such as mango-passionfruit, cherry-acai, or lemon-lime are more common and the direction most manufacturers turn to for innovation. Bases like vodka, gin, and grain-neutral spirits provide versatile palettes for a wide range of flavours. The challenge? Finding the combinations that excite consumers to try a new flavour with the taste that keeps them coming back for another can or bottle.

To get a glimpse into the evolution of flavour trends, Buchert suggests looking back at flavours featured at trade events like the Fancy Food Show, hosted annually by the Specialty Food Association.

For example, new flavours at the 2015 show included florals and maple, now frequently found in food & beverage launches. 2017 saw ginger and banana make it into the mainstream. And the 2019 show highlighted goldenberries, calamansi, and butterfly pea flower, emerging flavours to consider if your brand story includes trendier tastes.

Fruit (like mango, watermelon, or peach), citrus, and berry profiles have consistently ranked as the top 3 choices for formulators launching single flavours in the past 3 years. Leading flavour combinations introduced since 2019 paired:

2 or more citrus fruits

sweeter fruit blends like mango and peach

berry and citrus combos such as cranberry with lime

berry and sweeter fruit pairings like strawberry-guava Choosing flavour combinations starts with defining brand goals including the target audience and selecting the RTD beverage base. While producers can incorporate flavour through raw ingredients or juices, adding flavour to RTD alcoholic beverages offers several advantages.

When FlavorSum talked with Stephen Rich, Certified Cicerone, Prudhomme Beer Sommelier, and BJCP Certified Beer Judge, he pointed out that flavours:

Give brewers and distillers more accurate, consistent dosing

Provide a steady supply and easier customizability of unique tastes (or blends)

Offer easy, flexible incorporation into the brewing or distillation process

Minimize safety and contamination risks

Represent a sustainable ingredient that reduces volume loss in RTDs Partnering with a flavour house with applications expertise in RTD alcoholic beverages can help producers create an enjoyable taste for consumers.

And for those looking for flavour inspiration, Meghan Buchert, founder of product development consultancy MAD Liquid Innovation, recommends looking at several sources. In a conversation with the FlavorSum team, Buchert noted that the variety of

HYBRIDS ARE EXPANDING THE RTD LANDSCAPE Hybrid beverages that combine key features or benefits from multiple drink categories aren’t a new idea. History notes the 17th-century origin of fortified wine, a beverage using distilled spirits (often brandy) as a preservative.

But hybridization is evolving to keep pace with consumer interests and represents an opportunity for RTD alcoholic beverages.

Market intelligence company Innova notes that producers introducing a hybrid can gain market presence by:

satisfying changing preferences

broadening product appeal to new audiences

creating unique experiences that engage consumers Hybrids within the RTD alcoholic beverage space can be ‘close-in’ innovations such as:

wine or spirit bases with flavour combinations

hard lemonade, limeade, and teas in flavour varieties

no-alcohol options that use alcohol flavour notes to deliver a cocktail-like drink A newer form of hybridization that’s drawing the attention of RTD formulators is functionality. Consumers are increasingly turning to food and beverages for managing health and are becoming more aware of the ingredients that can help them achieve well-being.

Now, some producers are incorporating elements like probiotics and prebiotics in non-alcoholic RTD adult beverages.

Immunity is a top concern of consumers, leading some brands in the alcohol space to highlight the immune-boosting benefits of ingredients like vitamin C, B-12, turmeric, or omegas.

THC, CBD, and cannabis-infused RTD alcoholic beverages are becoming more available in some regions of North America.

Other purposeful RTD alcoholic beverages recently launched included electrolytes, anti-inflammatory antioxidants, adaptogens like l-theanine, superfoods like jicama, and superfruits such as acerola.

While functionality can boost the appeal of a RTD beverage, the ingredients can also add complexity, cost, and formulation challenges for producers. For example, cannabinoids carry unique, often bitter notes that may require producers to employ a masker, process adjustment, or bitter-balancing flavour profile to deliver a pleasing taste.

RTDs can Fulfill Consumer Desire for Customization and Personalization

Just as brewers develop different beers to whet the appetite, follow a good meal, or fit with late-night sipping, RTD producers

The innovation journey to launch a RTD Alcoholic beverages promises mixology opportunities and challenges for brewers and distillers.

Although formulators may have creative freedom with benchtop RTDs, several regulatory agencies in North America set limits on alcoholic beverage brands:

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) regulates the approval of alcoholic beverages in the U.S.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration oversees flavour usage through the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) – Title 21.

Health Canada regulates alcohol through the Food and Drugs Act (FDA) and the Food and Drug Regulations (FDR).

Provisions of the Safe Food for Canadians Act (SFCA) and the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR) also apply to alcoholic beverages.

Provincial liquor boards in Canada also regulate the labeling and sale of alcoholic drinks including RTDs and hard seltzers.

North American adult beverage drinkers are eager to explore new brands and flavours, but with discernment and high expectations about taste and performance.

Fortunately, resources and suppliers are available to help navigate the formulation and regulatory complexities of RTD innovation, clearing the path to success for RTD brands.

can build need-or-occasion-based portfolios. Benefit-based assortments that allow consumers to mix-and-match for different occasions give RTD brands opportunities to build loyalty and market share.

For example, assortments could include:

a low calorie, low sugar, lower ABV product as a healthier option

a higher ABV, spirit-based RTD beverage for a cocktail-like experience

a no-alcohol adult taste profile with a formula that supports relaxation, focus, calmness, or energy Singularly positioned brands also have a place, especially with an assortment of flavours that transform an idea into a variety of exciting drinks for consumers.

ABOUT FLAVORSUM

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lavorSum provides the flavour solutions, expertise, responsiveness, and infrastructure that growing food and beverage companies need to accelerate success.

Part of our mission is to make flavour sourcing more efficient, effective, and enjoyable. Expertise in flavour development and application support for alcoholic beverages combined with industry-leading production and delivery makes us one of the most responsive North American flavour companies. Partner with FlavorSum to transform your beverage ideas into delicious tastes consumers crave.

And check out FlavorSum’s e-book: “How to Master Formulation Challenges in the ‘Wild West’ of RTD Cocktails” for additional insights and formulation tips to guide your RTD Innovation process.

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BREWERS JOURNAL CANADA

CANADIAN BREWERS CHOICE AWARDS

2022

AWARD CATEGORIES BREWERY OF THE YEAR - PRESENTED BY JENREY NEW BREWERY OF THE YEAR - PRESENTED BY CAREFOOTE BEVERAGE SOLUTIONS BREWER OF THE YEAR - PRESENTED BY BREW NINJA YOUNG BREWER OF THE YEAR - PRESENTED BY CHARLES FARAM BEER OF THE YEAR - PRESENTED BY BREWERY TRADER NEW BEER OF THE YEAR - PRESENTED BY VESSEL BRANDING OF THE YEAR - PRESENTED BY NORTH KEG SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR - PRESENTED BY TOP 5 SOLUTIONS LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD - PRESENTED BY BSG CANADA

SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN PRODUCED BY BREWERS JOURNAL CANADA WWW.BREWERSJOURNAL.CA/AWARDS

WORKPLACE SAFETY

COMMENT

PROTECTING WORKERS IN CRAFT BREWERIES

AS THE INDUSTRY HAS GROWN, SO HAS THE NEED FOR BETTER INFORMATION, PROTOCOLS, AND INNOVATIONS TO KEEP INDUSTRY WORKERS SAFE, EXPLAINS ALEXANDRA SKINNER

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raft brewers know the steps necessary to protect the quality of beer from common risk factors, such as microbiological contamination, incorrect temperatures, or the introduction of the wrong yeast.

But what about the steps necessary to protect workers? As the craft beer industry has grown in B.C., so too have the injuries to workers.

Workplace incidents can have devastating and long-lasting impacts on injured workers, their families, and co-workers. They can also be financially costly for employers.

A GROWING INDUSTRY MEANS GROWING SAFETY CONCERNS The craft beer industry continues to grow in British Columbia. As of 2020, B.C. has been home to 204 breweries— up from 54 in 2010. There are craft breweries in about 60 B.C. communities, supporting about 4,500 direct jobs.

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WorkSafeBC has also seen a corresponding increase in claims from the sector. Between 2011 to 2021, there were 465 accepted timeloss claims for injuries in craft breweries— with workers aged 25 to 34 accounting for the highest percentage of workers injured.

The health and safety needs of growing industries like craft brewing is just one of the issues being addressed by WorkSafeBC’s Risk Analysis Unit (RAU)—which looks at new industries, processes, and products— continually scanning the horizon for new risks and working with industry to ensure they manage those risks.

DOING THE HEAVY LIFTING Jose Barranco, Manager, Risk Analysis Unit at WorkSafeBC, says many of the injuries are like those experienced at other manufacturing operations.

“We see a lot of musculoskeletal injuries, from employees moving kegs,” Barranco says. “Delivery workers have the most injuries, especially when manually moving kegs into cellars.”

Barranco says that sometimes employers think that sending in someone strong enough to move the kegs means they don’t need mechanical lifting devices— but that’s not true.

“A good solution is to use mechanical lifting devices.” Says Barranco. “There are many options— from sophisticated devices to simple dolly carts that can help move kegs,” he says.

Data has shown that spending money on these devices saves in the long term by reducing injuries.

CONFINED SPACES AN AREA OF CONCERN, BUT THERE ARE MANY MORE RISKS One of the roles of RAU is to identify risks that can impact worker health and safety— before incidents happen. As part of this process, WorkSafeBC identified several risks within the craft brewing industry.

The beer fermentation process produces carbon dioxide gas, which may leak out of hoppers or tanks and into the working environment. Workers may be exposed to

BREWERS JOURNAL CANADA

this carbon dioxide, putting them at risk for adverse health effects.

Carbon dioxide and other gases can also accumulate in confined spaces such as fermentation tanks, mixing tanks, and silos— creating oxygen-depleted environments that put workers at immediate risk of death or serious injury if they attempt to enter.

“While we haven’t seen any incidents related to confined spaces to date, it is one of our biggest concerns as workers frequently enter these spaces for cleaning and quality control inspections,” Barranco says.

While many brewers may know CO2 and confined spaces are dangerous, sometimes it takes working with OHS professionals to determine the best ways to minimize risk.

WorkSafeBC’s Confined Space Entry Team did an inspection blitz of breweries in 2016.

As a result, employers assessed the need to enter confined spaces, and proactively created supervision and rescue plans prior to entry—ultimately reducing the risk to workers.

Supervise. Employers and supervisors should regularly verify workers are following safe work procedures.

Provide the right equipment. Where needed, provide eye and face protection, safety footwear and headgear, gloves, hearing protection, high-visibility clothing, and respiratory protection.

Inspect your workplace. Regular inspections reveal the current state of a workplace and can help employers identify hazards and prevent unsafe practices from becoming commonplace.

While protocols and information will never be enough to keep workplaces like craft breweries completely incident-free, the craft brewing industry

is poised to continue growing. “We are committed to working with the industry to ensure they are managing the risks their workers may face on the job —together creating healthier and safer environments for this booming B.C. industry,” Barranco says.

LEARN MORE WorkSafeBC’s printable guide, “Health and Safety For Craft Breweries and Distilleries”, contains information to help identify and eliminate hazards faced by workers. It also covers specific procedures for performing tasks safely and for handling workplace incidents, and includes companion forms and checklists.

Barranco says other common injuries include overexertion, getting struck by machinery, encountering hot surfaces during the manufacturing process, working at heights, contact with and exposure to hazardous chemicals, cuts and lacerations during bottling, slips and trips, exposure to heat and cold, and sensitization to grain dust.

EMPLOYERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR KEEPING WORKERS SAFE Like all B.C. employers, brewers have a legal obligation to ensure the health and safety of their workers. This includes establishing a health and safety program, providing training and personal protective equipment, and identifying and mitigating risks.

According to WorkSafeBC, there are a few basic guidelines employers should follow.

Conduct a safety orientation for new and young workers.

Training should be task specific. Break down each task workers performs into steps—and advise on the health and safety requirements for each step. For example, how to safely load grain into a hopper.

Training should be ongoing. Workplaces are dynamic, especially in new and evolving industries like brewing.

As new tasks, technologies, or equipment is introduced, employers must continue to train and engage workers.

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BENCH BREWING 18

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PINTS WITH PURPOSE

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“I GUESS I’M FORTUNATE THAT THERE ARE A LOT OF THINGS I COULD HAVE DONE AT THIS PARTICULAR POINT OF MY PROFESSIONAL LIFE. BUT CREATING A COMPANY, ONE THAT IS A FORCE FOR GOOD, WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR ME. ONCE I HAD THAT CALLING, THERE WAS NO TURNING BACK.” brewersjournal.ca

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M

att Giffen, founder of Bench Brewing Company, is, in his own words a “recovering banker”. Having worked and lived across Europe and Asia, from London and Dublin to Singapore, the former financier now works with numbers of a different kind - namely hectolitres, acres and kilograms.

Bench Brewing Company is a Belgian-inspired farmhouse brewery located on eight acres of farmland in the stunning Niagara Benchlands. The brewery is situated in the Town of Lincoln, right in the heart of the area’s rural but sophisticated wine region.

Bench’s home in the Niagara Benchlands is blessed with some of Ontario’s finest agricultural land with orchards, vineyards, and produce farms that provide the ideal location for making premium quality beer which reflect its local terroir.

The brewery’s vision is to produce premium quality beer that embraces old world brewing techniques while embracing the local surroundings of the Niagara Benchlands, striving to be a global leader in producing barrel-aged, sour and mixed fermentation beer.

Starting out initially in 2016, brewing and packaging on a contract basis, Bench

would soon go on to find its forever home, Beamsville’s former Maple Grove public school. A facility opening in June 2018 that would house a sprawling brewery, retail store, tasting room as well as acreage enabling the company to grow many of its own hopes on-site.

“The ability to start something from scratch, a clean slate, and to create a culture was a great opportunity. It’s one that has always interested me,” he explains. “When I left the banking world, I knew I wanted to open my own business. I also knew I loved beer!”

Giffen’s horizons in the world of beer were broadened thanks to his professional travels. Imbibing styles from across the globe opened his eyes to the wealth of flavours and aromas that existed in the wonderful world of beer.

“When my wife Erin and I returned home from overseas we invested in some property here in the Town of Lincoln.

The space allowed us to grow our own grapes and as someone that has always been interested in agriculture, it was a fantastic learning experience,” he recalls. “And that love of beer, especial Belgian styles, really got me thinking about the potential of doing something of our own in this great community.”

And as luck would have it, the perfect location would soon become available. That was the former Maple Grove Public School.

An institution that originally opened in September 1944, designed by Hamilton architect Frederick Warren.

He adds: “I jumped at it. It was just perfect. The combination of a beautiful location and the ability to grow our own hops just made complete sense. We call ourselves ‘The beer from wine country’ and it was just perfect from the very beginning because as a rural farmhouse brewery, Belgian-inspired in a lot of ways, to be as close as we are to all the incredible inputs from ingredients to barrels - some two, three, four kilometres away was hugely-attractive.”

While Bench Brewing grows some of its own hops, it works with partners such as BSG and Escarpment Labs on the supply of other ingredients. And the combination of these ingredients are used to great effect in the brewery’s diverse range of beers.

From its maiden coolship release launched at the end of 2021, its Sun Daze Rose Sour and the Fortified Imperial Expresso Stout, to core beers such as Ball’s Falls Session IPA, Short Hills Hazy IPA, Lincoln Lager Helles Lager and Jordan Harbour Pale Ale. “Our family of beers have certainly evolved over time. But we have kept to our one belief and our one vision. And that’s the same passion regardless of style,” explains Giffen. “We have a commitment to quality, whether it is a Belgian barrel-aged sour or a hazy IPA, we maintain that unwavering commitment to quality.”

What has also evolved is the ways the brewery packages its beers, with many of the beers from its funk side now going into can as well as bottle.

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He says: “As we’ve seen throughout Canada, and i’m sure around the world, bottles are becoming less and less the packaging of choice. With that in mind we’ve tweaked and improved our brewing practices to enable us to can more of the beers from our funk side.”

The first of which is Sun Daze, a light sour beer made with real local strawberries and hibiscus flavour. “One impact of the pandemic was our desire to start rolling out more innovation from the funk side, and show our customers all the work going on behind the scenes. And it’s going great!” he says.

Beers at Bench are brewed on a premises that housed the aforementioned Maple Grove Public School, a building of particular importance for many in the area. “This area is written in history,” says Giffen. “So it was critical for us to maintain and preserve the heritage as best as we could. Many of the folks within the community attended the school so respecting that was essential.

“And from a sustainability perspective, they say that the most sustainable building that you can build is one that’s already built so adaptive reuse was critical. Concrete is clearly a huge carbon emitter, and we wanted to work with what we already had here on the land.”

The brewery is split with the clean side producing the community range of beers while the funk side houses the barrels for ageing along side our friends Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus and Pediococcus.

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A 50HL, four-barrel, NSI brewhouse supplies both sides of the brewery with an airlock, one-way system and strict SOPs ensuring both elements of production are kept firmly apart.

And on the human side, people are of utmost importance to Giffen and the culture at Bench Brewing. “Back in 2018, could I have envisioned the team to be good as we have?

The answer would be no because the team we have now is so damn good!”. Why? Everybody has a passion for the beer, for each other, for Bench and for the community. And I’m just so proud and lucky to be part of it all.

“It’s just a great unit, and a team that believes in and continually invests in our culture. I think that approach been a great thing for us especially during the tough times we all experienced during the pandemic. And at this time when we’re still bringing more people in, during a tough time to hire, we continue to be able to do so because people understand our values.

We’re very transparent about it and attracts people to our group.”

And that team, like many of their brewing peers, had to pull together during challenging recent years. For Giffen, the pandemic meant it was time to survive, revive and thrive.

“When it all went down, with all of the uncertainty surrounding everyone, first and foremost we said ‘let’s survive’. The priori-

ty was everybody’s health and safety, and that we all adhered to the policies in place to navigate the situation,” Giffen recalls.

“We are fortunate that we had a good retail business so our packaged side helped to make up of our loss of income from the taproom and on-premise sales.”

The brewery also kept all of its full-time staff on payroll. “There were tears when we had to furlough our part-time team members but there was also tears of joy when they came back to us,” he smiles. “At that point, it was time to revive. We asked ourselves what can we do now, what can we do better and how can we come out of this stronger? We were incredibly focused on new opportunities, new avenues and increasing efficiencies.”

The brewery benefitted from its strong e-commerce presence, while its curbside offering has more than a million visitors annually pass it while on the local wine route right outside the brewery itself. And while Bench is a beer business in wine country, it feels very much at home.

“I feel that Niagara, in general, has a strong artisanal culture. It’s the cornerstone of our winemaking community in Canada and that has always helped foster growth when it comes to the culture of creativity and collaboration,” says Giffen. “And I feel that artisanal identity also flows through the brewing community, which is obviously quite nascent compared to our winemaking businesses in the area.”

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Just as the culture of creativity flows into the brewery’s sense of community, and the people that make it, so does the respect for the environment and the impact the business has on it. From day one, ensuring Bench was a sustainable operation was front and centre of Giffen’s vision. And something that forms part of the ‘thrive’ chapter of this latest journey, too.

“Being a rural brewery dictates our decision making on a daily basis. It’s the main driver,” he says. “From a belief perspective, sustainability is key. We have neighbours on either side of us whose families have been farming the same land for more than 200 years. They were the original settlers, so these are the true stewards of the land.

“I get to see these folks daily, they’re our friends or neighbours. And, you know, we had such great mentorship with respect to being that same sustainable stewards of the land and by being members of the farming agricultural community of the Town of Lincoln. For us, that means having a low as an environmental footprint as possible.”

And for a snapshot overview of some of the measures and initiatives Bench Brewing has adopted, check out the following link which features Lily Wilson’s excellent

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report for her University of Guelph Sustainable Restaurant Project. The full, detailed, version of which can be found at: https://ugsrp.com/2021/04/21/ bench-brewing-company/ That desire to collectively thrive would emerge from the pandemic, Giffen and the team would have time to reflect and in doing so, would find themselves learn more about being a B Corp. Certification it would go on to secure in 2021.

It demonstrates that the brewery is a business that meets the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal responsibility.

The ultimate goal is to balance profit and purpose, using business as a force for good – redefining success in business to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy.

The “B” stands for beneficial and indicates that the certified organizations voluntarily meet certain standards of transparency, accountability, sustainability, and performance, with an aim to create value for society, not just for traditional stakeholders such as the shareholders.

The certification was provided by B Lab, a non-profit organization created

in 2006 that administrates the B Impact Management Assessment program.

This rigorous verification process requires each applicant to reach a benchmark score while providing verified evidence of socially and environmentally responsible practices relating to energy conservation, waste and water use, worker compensation, diversity and corporate transparency.

“We were extremely proud to secure B Corp Certification. It was a huge accomplishment by the entire Bench team and demonstrates our longstanding commitment to our employees, customers, community and the environment,” says Giffen.

But it doesn’t mean stopping there, either.

“We are focused on continual improvement and becoming a better company. We are not content for one minute to simply pass a B Corp audit every two years - we are fully invested in improving all the time,” he says. “Our values now are as they were since the very beginning. They form part of our belief system, as a team and as a business. That means respecting the environment, engaging with the community, looking after our team and, of course, making really good beer.”

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INGREDIENTS

MALT

FROM GRAIN TO GLASS MALTSTERS ARE WORKING WITH BREWERS TO SHOWCASE HOW THE AVAILABILITY OF NOVEL MALTING BARLEY VARIETIES ARE HELPING JUMP-START FRESH FLAVOUR PROFILES IN THE BEERS THEY BREW. IN THIS PIECE, MATTHEW CURTIS EXAMINES MALTING BARLEY LCS GENIE AND ITS IMPACT ON THE CRAFT BEER MARKET.

Photography: Matthew Curtis

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C

old is the name given to an unfiltered, Pilsner-style beer produced by TRVE Brewing (pronounced “True”) in Denver, Colorado. Brewed very much in the style of the classic German lagers that influenced it, on your first taste Cold presents flavours of crushed oats, a little biscuit, and a dusting of peppery hops. Its finish is dry and refreshing, as all good lagers should be, immediately tempting you to take another sip.

Scratch a little below the surface, and a few other, perhaps unexpected flavours begin to reveal themselves: white grape, honey, and fresh peach. Unlike the majority of American craft beers, the presence of these—quite frankly, delicious—notes is not provided by the judicious use of hops cultivated in the Pacific Northwest. Instead, it’s thanks to a two-row malting barley variety called LCS Genie, grown just a few miles away from the brewery in Northern Colorado, and transformed into high-quality malt for brewing by Troubadour Maltings in the nearby city of Fort Collins.

LCS Genie has the potential to radically alter the malt supply chain in American craft beer. Bred by farmer-owned cooperative Limagrain Cereal Seeds (LCS), LCS Genie

has sourced award-winning malts every year at the Craft Maltsters Guild’s annual Malt Cup, including a gold, two silvers, and a bronze this year alone. In addition, several beers made using this malt have earned medals at the annual Great American Beer Festival, held each fall by the Brewers Association.

Beyond this, an increasing number of small, or craft, maltsters and breweries are now asking for this variety by name. Not only for the production of new, or experimental, beers either, but also for longstanding, core range products enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of people across the United States.

And, in addition to offering brewers great flavour and high performance at a technical level, it’s also giving brewers the opportunity to connect more deeply with local supply chains, allowing them to source a high-quality, great-tasting raw material from local farms and malthouses. A process that not only makes beer production more sustainable, but also helps businesses connect their customers with the agricultural processes inherent to the existence of these products.

Could it be that LCS Genie will help define the next chapter in North American craft brewing?

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“Tasting barley over the years, it was clear that [LCS Genie] was a step above what I could get from the mass-production sources,” TRVE Brewing’s head brewer and co-owner Zach Coleman tells me. “My concerns quickly shifted from wanting to use it to: ‘Is this something I’m going to be able to get regularly?’”

A spring barley originally—yet unsuccessfully—developed in the United Kingdom for use as a distilling variety, LCS Genie has since thrived in the U.S. climate and is becoming an increasingly popular malting barley within the beer industry. From an agronomic perspective it produces high yields, with its naturally lower levels of protein benefitting growers looking to use

high-input management systems (essentially producing more than one crop per field within a calendar year). As a malting barley variety, LCS Genie is officially recommended by the American Malting Barley Association.

The variety handles exceptionally well in the malthouse, performing well as both a base malt and for maltsters looking to be more creative with the flavour expressions they’re looking to produce: from lighter Pale and Munich-style malts, right through the spectrum to roasted Chocolate and Dark malts. On a technical brewing level, it yields both high and consistent levels of extract, while also having a beta-glucan content

of under 100 ppm. This ensures efficiency in the brewhouse, while also yielding a superb range of flavours, depending on the style of malt being used.

Since its initial trials by Washington State University in 2013, LCS Genie is now cultivated in 17 states, including Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Colorado. And not only does it provide a barley malt option that is both efficient and packed with flavour, for craft brewers like Zach Coleman at TRVE, it means he’s able to source a product that is both cultivated and malted within 30 miles of his brewery.

“For me, it’s important for brewers to spearhead using local grain—in this case LCS Genie—and not give people a choice to not support local agriculture,” Coleman says.

“I want our beers to be representative of the place they’re made from.”

Coleman — a Texas native who relocated to Colorado in 2013 — has been brewing for more than a decade. After stints at Boulder’s Upslope Brewing and Big Choice Brewing in Brighton, he eventually joined TRVE as head brewer while the brewery was in its early stages of development. He would go on to become a co-owner of the Denver business in 2019. At TRVE, he’s developed a delicious range of beers, including balanced and crushable lagers like Cold, classically resinous and citrus-led American IPAs such as Tunnel of Trees, and sour, funky, wild-fermented beers Coleman creates in a facility known as the “Acid Temple.”

LCS Genie malting barley is at the heart of all of these recipes.

Coleman was introduced to the variety by his friend Chris Schooley, the co-founder of Troubadour Maltings in Fort Collins, an hour’s drive north of Denver. Coleman sources the majority of his malt from Troubadour, as well as another local malting company near the city of Loveland (just south of Fort Collins) called Root Shoot, a farm-based business that grows and malts LCS Genie barley.

“I decided I really wanted to work with these guys, especially after seeing and tasting the malt they were producing, because it was so good,” Coleman tells me. “Right away, especially with these maltsters, the quality was there. Really though, it was meeting Chris and bonding with him personally. Troubadour has a different approach to malt that’s really appealing to me.”

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Cold uses a 100% LCS Genie-based malt from Troubadour known as Pevec (pronounced “pev-ich” and the Czech word for a songbird).

Although technically a Pilsner malt, Troubadour prefers to put its own spin on each style of malt it produces. Rather than Munich or Vienna malt, for example, here they’re called Ballad and Serenade. As well as tying in with the musically themed branding of the business, for Schooley and his co-founder Steve Clark, it’s a way to encourage their customers, and those who drink and enjoy these products, to forge a closer relationship with the ingredients in what they buy.

Think about it: For decades, the hop industry has been using engaging terminology for popular varieties to the point where Citra, Mosaic, Simcoe, and the like are now a part of the typical craft beer drinker’s vernacular.

Troubadour’s thinking is: Why not with malt?

“I always see the flavours and character you can draw from a raw material as being latent potential and not intrinsic potential,” Schooley tells me. “That’s really the axis of what LCS Genie brought to the table, in that it was intended to have character, which flies in the face of where most breeding was around malting barley in North America up to that point.”

Much of Troubadour’s existence is owed to chance. Schooley met Clark because their daughters attended the same school, and the former would often stop by to try the latter’s homebrew after the school run.

Schooley used to be in the specialty coffee industry, including a stint at the Chicago-based Intelligentsia Coffee.

Living in the beer-centric city of Fort Collins opened his eyes to the potential of connecting its many brewers directly to the malting barley supply chain; from the farm right to the glass. By coincidence, Clark— who was formerly based in the pharmaceuticals industry—had been drawing up a business plan for a malthouse. The idea for Troubadour was sown.

Incorporated in 2013, after spending the best part of a year building its facility along Lincoln Avenue (near several breweries, including Odell, Funkwerks, and Horse & Dragon), Troubadour finally began producing malt in 2015. One of the biggest hurdles it faced, however, was finding a barley variety it could contract, as intellectual property laws blocked access to the majority of two-row barleys currently being cultivated in the United States. Fate, it seems, would supply the answer once again. A chance meeting between Clark, Schooley, and several LCS employees at the (now sadly

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shuttered) Pateros Creek brewery in Old Town Fort Collins saw the forging of a fortuitous relationship.

“We built a malthouse right at a time they needed a malthouse, and we needed a barley variety right at the time they were looking at introducing a new one to the area,” Schooley tells me. “We needed a variety that didn’t belong to anybody and was capable of producing something really special.”

The unique approach Clark and Schooley have adopted in both the production and marketing of Troubadour malt has seen them win favour with a great many small, local breweries, from Primitive Brewing in Longmont, to Cohesion, Baere, and Our Mutual Friend in Denver, and Horse & Dragon, which is located just a few hundred yards from Troubadour’s base of operations. The quality of its LCS Genie-based malts has also attracted the attention of larger, regional breweries, such as Oskar Blues, Odell, and New Belgium. The latter recently produced a nationally distributed sour beer called Dominga using Troubadour malt. Inspired by the paloma cocktail, it utilized a custom-made LCS Genie-based malt that was smoked over cactus leaves for extra flavour.

up the opportunity for customization,” Schooley says. “LCS Genie gives us so many options to unlock that customization. It’s the perfect little seed and has so much potential.”

The balance and variety Troubadour is able to extract from LCS Genie in both its base malts and its smaller batch custom roasts is surely an example of the latent potential Schooley spoke of earlier. It’s not just the brewers and distillers who use this malt that think so either, with Pevec taking home a silver medal in the 2021 Malt Cup. What’s all the more remarkable is that Pevec won in the more characterful Pale malt category, rather than the Pilsner malt category, further demonstrating the flavor and character LCS Genie is able to provide. Something you can taste immediately, each and every time you sip a pint of TRVE Cold Keller Pils.

“It’s a beautiful beer that really showcases the LCS Genie variety, not just in terms of flavor, but also in terms of mouthfeel and body,” Schooley tells me. “LCS Genie has a weight to it where it can still be clear and crisp, but it provides a three-dimensional experience. This is an ingredient we can’t ignore anymore.”

In 2020 Troubadour completed an expansion, tripling its capacity. At the same time, it added a barley roaster designed by German manufacturer Bühler, allowing Schooley to call on his coffee industry past and produce a range of roasted malts he calls Troubadour’s modulated series. He tells me how their small size in comparison to larger, industrial-sized malthouses allows them greater flexibility. One example of this is the ability to produce custom batches of malt designed to meet a brewer’s demanding specifications, such as the one recently produced for New Belgium.

“Our whole goal from day one was not necessarily to create this whole pile of SKUs, but rather for brewers and distillers to come to us and say, ‘This is what we’re looking for. Can you do this for us?’ and open

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ENVIROMENT

THE ENVIRONMENT

SAVE THE EARTH BE ENVIRONMENTALE

TIM O’ROURKE IS A MASTER BREWER WITH OVER 35 YEARS EXPERIENCE. HE HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN THE INTERNATIONAL BREWING INDUSTRY IN A WIDE RANGE OF CAPACITIES, HIS EXPERTISE COVERS PRODUCT AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, MARKETING AND PROMOTION. IN THIS ARTICLE, FOCUSING ON BREWING, HE ARGUES THAT IT IS UP TO ALL OF US TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY AND LOOK AFTER AND CHERISH OUR PLANET AND MAKE IT SAFE FOR OUR CHILDREN AND OUR CHILDREN’S CHILDREN.

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E

nvironmental pollution and climate change is the major challenge facing the world today. Effects of climate change surround us with increases in extreme weather events.

There is a clear link between climate change and the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and the levels have increased from 283.4 mg/l with an average surface temperature of 8.40C in 1900 to 415.8 mg/l and a surface temperature of 9.70C in 2020. With current forecast emissions surface temperatures are expected to rise by between 2.0 and 2.50C over 1900 temperatures, with some projections as high as 50C.

Industry is busy decarbonising by replacing fossil fuels with clean non-polluting energy. At present, industry is unable to completely eliminate greenhouse gas emissions during manufacture and offsets the additional emissions by signing up to “carbon offsets”. It is essential any offsetting is sustainable, accredited, and credible.

Offsetting will not be sufficient to halt the rise in temperature and it will require carbon capture to permanently remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, this is a young and developing technology which is expected to play a prominent part in combating greenhouse gases.

By contrast to many processed food and drink products, beer has a moderate carbon footprint, but due to the volume consumed it still a significant contributor to greenhouse gases.

When calculating the carbon footprint of a beer it is necessary to include the whole supply chain from grain to glass. A typical litre of draught beer gives off 363 grams/ CO2e per litre while the equivalent beer packed in non-returnable bottles give off 832 grams/CO2e per litre, based on results calculated from 11 different UK breweries.

The first step is to calculate the brewery’s carbon footprint across the whole supply chain from barley cultivation to the customer enjoying their beer in the pub or at home.

This can look like a daunting task and ap-

Figure 1 Carbon Footprint for different food servings based on data taken from “How Bad are Bananas” by Mike Berners-Lee Revised 2020.

BREWERS JOURNAL CANADA

Figure 2 Average contribution of operations to the carbon footprint of a beer from grain to glass information provided by Centre for sustainable systems University of Michigan

pears as an extra burden on an already overworked Brewer! Several organisations such as Brewers of Europe, Zero Carbon Forum, Carbon Architecture and Net Zero Now have produced templates and roadmaps to help support and guide business, and their customers, on their journey to decarbonisation. Each individual journey will be unique and based on the needs and operation of the business. A basic carbon footprint can be produced using simplified templates from standard commercial data for energy consumption, material purchases and sales. This will evolve as data become more reliable and can be used to highlight areas of high emissions and assist with the development of a programme of continuous improvement towards a carbon zero goal.

To cover the complete supply chain carbon footprint is considered under three headings:

Scope 1 covers direct emissions from the owned or controlled operations of a business, which includes emissions from fossil fuel generated in the brewery for boilers, vehicles, and direct emissions of CO2 from the process.

Scope 2 are indirect emissions generated by suppliers of services to the

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business, for example purchased electricity and heat used by the brewery.

Scope 3 covers all other indirect emissions generated by organisations associated with the value chain of a business i.e., for production and supply of packaged beer, malted barley for brewing and bottles for packaging.

Stakeholders, investors, and customers expect business to have an active, credible environmental programme and Government and Regulators will be putting pressure on companies to follow its green agenda, including possible “carbon” tax and scrutiny of green claims.

Scope 1 & 2 principally relate to energy required in the Brewing Process contributes a relatively small amount (between 70 – 90 grams/CO2e per litre) or 10 to 15% of the total carbon footprint of beer. However, if this is multiplied by the volume of beer produced in 2020 it equates to 18 million tons of CO2.

There are many effective ways Brewers can decrease their reliance on fossil fuels to reduce their carbon footprint and save money particularly in the face of escalating fuel costs, for example:

Process optimisation. Increasing extract yields and reducing losses will reduce the carbon footprint per litre and save money.

During fermentation sugars are broken down to alcohol and carbon dioxide. A 100 litres of 1048 (120P) gravity wort will generate 1.8-2.5 kg CO2. However, since it is considered to have come from renewable sources (grown in the last 5 years) it is not counted in the carbon footprint calculator. Many breweries recover CO2 to be used in other parts of the process, but carbon dioxide collection plants are big and expensive. A novel idea is to bubble carbon dioxide through an algal mixture to fix the CO2 through photosynthesis to produce human or animal food.

Waste food can be used as an additional source of extract with several Brewers using surplus bread as part of their recipe. This is not new, in the 1960’s Boddington was using broken cornflakes from Kellogg’s as an adjunct in the mash tun.

Brewer’s (spent) grains and surplus yeast are used for animal feed. An unexpected benefit of feeding cows on a partial diet of brewer’s grains is that they reduce methane emissions by 14%!

Energy, particularly burning fossil fuels, is the biggest source of emissions in brewing. This can be reduced by avoiding unnecessary heating or leaving equipment running when not in use or changing to cold contact processes using chemicals in place of heat sterilisation.

Look at ways to green the process – capturing vapour recovery and condensate return or greening the premises by installing solar panels and planting the gardens with shrubs and trees Obtaining electricity from a renewable energy provider or generating electricity from solar or wind power on site.

Use alternative boiler fuel such as biogas or coppice wood Invest in efficient boiler and refrigerator technology. Eliminating refrigerant losses, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which has a carbon impact 1200 times that of the same volume of CO2

Future opportunities include

Using a thermal energy store for wort boiling and steam raising, heated by renewable electricity storing excess renewable energy as heat.

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A major UK International brewer is installing hydrogen generation to replace gas.

Signing up to a common protocol for measuring the carbon footprint to give confidence to stakeholders.

Changing attitudes and engaging the whole organisation in the green experience. Always consider the environmental benefit of any business decision. Don’t be afraid to challenge accepted ways of doing things, after all many of the brewing processes have not changed for 1000 years. Examine and embrace new technologies.

Verify your results with audits and bring your team along with the programme.

The rest of the carbon footprint is covered

by Scope 3.

Nearly a third of the carbon footprint comes from agriculture in growing and preparing the brewing materials. Growing malting barley using modern farming practices and improvements in fertiliser manufacture has seen a reduction of around 30% in the past 15 years in GHG emissions.

Alternative practices such as using crop rotation, organic cultivation and zero tillage can reduce CO2e by a further 30 - 40% with improvements in soil health and structure.

Investment in agriculture gives farmers an opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and generate additional income from carbon credits. This is a win-win sce-

Intercropping. Photo copied James Hutton Institute / Newcastle

nario if brewers can buy this type of carbon credit (called an inset rather than offset) to neutralise their carbon budget and at the same time de-risk the supply of raw material by providing an increased income for farmers growing a low margin crop. The NFU aims to be Carbon Neutral by 2024.

Intercropping offers promising opportunities to improve sustainability, reduce pest and disease burden, and enhance the resilience of agricultural systems to stresses such as climate change and market pressures.

Restoring soil health takes time, for example in Argentina it took 20 to 25 years for yields to rise and replenish soil nutrients and soil organic content. Now the soil has better moisture retention and is better able to withstand drought.

Brewing raw materials (barley and hops) are part of global markets, with crop security being affected by climate change, in the long term due to temperature rise but in the short term because of extreme weather patterns. We are already seeing the effects of poor harvests in increased costs.

During malting, kilning has the highest demands for fossil fuel and there have been great improvements in modern malting kiln design, with at least one maltster going green by using biogas. It was suggested that traditional floor malting has lower energy requirements.

Although hops have a high carbon footprint because of a high demand for fertiliser and plant protection, so few hops are used, its net contribution to a pint of beer is relatively small. There is a continuous programme of breeding to improve disease resistance and resilience. Acceptance of new technologies such as gene editing could accelerate the rate of improvement, reducing of greenhouse gas emissions. Also choosing local varieties would look better for the environment, although in practice long distance sea freight makes little difference to its carbon footprint.

Each supplier should produce a carbon footprint for the products they supply to the industry, so that this can be included in a carbon footprint calculator. This will lead to a competitive market for materials and services with a drive for continuous improvement.

The type of packaging has a major influence on the carbon footprint of beer with bulk packaging in kegs producing around 10% of the GHG of non-returnable bottles.

Figure 3 Total life cycle for different package types in grams of CO2e per litre beer with information provided by Centre for sustainable systems University of Michigan

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The friendliest environmental option for packaging beer is using bulk recy-

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Figure 4: Adnams Brewery have been able to reduce the weight of glass without changing the volume in their glass bottles.

Weight of 500 ml Broadside has been reduced by 34% from 445 g to 299 g. Saving 600 tonnes of glass/year Saving 410 tonnes of CO2e/year

clable containers which can be reused for decades only requiring cleaning between uses.

There are plastic based bulk containers specially designed for recycling and reuse where the containers can be fully dismantled, and the parts recycled.

Small pack (bottles and cans) form an important part of the product mix for beer sales and progress has been made to reduce their environmental impact with progress in “light weighting” (reducing the amount of material in each container) by as much as 40%. Most small pack is single use, and it is essential that there are good recycling facilities to minimise their environmental impact.

Secondary and Tertiary packaging represent an unnecessary waste and should be kept to a minimum. One area of public concern has been plastic waste particularly when it finds its way into the ocean.

Figure 5: Turtle trapped by Hi-cone

Local rapid beer turnover (which keeps the beer fresher) will serve the planet well. Large volumes of small pack beer shipped around the world will become increasingly undesirable. Use of local production, electric delivery vehicles and distribution centres will all contribute to reducing GHG. Keeping beer in cold cellars or flash cooling in line can contribute up to 16% to the carbon footprint. The British enjoyment of warm beer (served at 120C) has a definite environmental benefit.

Breweries look as if they are in a good place to invest and carry out the necessary improvements to reduce their carbon footprint by 90% by 2050 using regenerative agriculture, renewable energy and light weighting and recycling packaging. However, this data does not consider the emissions by consumers and trade.

If we are to keep climate change below 1.50C and achieve carbon zero by 2050 everyone will have to play their part.

There will be a lot of innovation in this space and will require the support and co-operation of our customers particularly Supermarkets who drive the demand for secondary packaging.

Policy from Local and National Governments must create the conditions to encourage Industry and Consumers to embrace and support environmental programmes. They can influence the agenda through laws and regulations and subsidies to encourage good practices.

Our carbon footprint does not end at the Brewery gate but only as it enters the throat of our customers. We need transport to deliver the product and refrigeration in the trade and at home to keep the beer cool.

Profit – For any business to survive it must make a profit that requires producing products that are required at a price and quality people are willing to buy. Increasingly stake holders in the business such as Consumers, Investors and Suppliers will consid-

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Figure 6: Carlsberg’s Snap Pack replaces the need for Hi-cone saving plastic and the planet

er environmental performance as part of quality and will expect products to be produced in a sustainable way.

People can be both part of the problem and part of the solution. As Brewers we interface with our employees and customers, and we can encourage them to come on our environmental journey to a greener sustainable future.

It is up to all of us to take responsibility and look after and cherish our planet and make it safe for our children and our children’s children.

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2 CROWS BREWING CO 32

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A BREWERY THAT TURNED FIVE YEARS YOUNG AT THE START OF 2022, HALIFAX-BASED 2 CROWS BREWING CO REMAINS A BRAND FOCUSED ON QUALITY, EDUCATION, AND TRANSPARENCY. THEY ARE ALSO EVOLVING, INNOVATING AND EXCELLING ALONG THE WAY. HEAD BREWER JEREMY TAYLOR TALKS US THROUGH HIS OWN JOURNEY IN BEER AND WHERE THE NOVA SCOTIA BREWERY GOES NEXT. Photos:: Grant Chisholm Photography

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“

One of the things I love most about this business is that we’re a brewer-driven brewery. Yes that means the margins might not be as good as they can be and yes, Mark swears at me sometimes but if that means I get to make the beers and he has to sell them then that’s ok!” laughs Jeremy Taylor.

Taylor is the head brewer and co-founder at Halifax-based 2 Crows Brewing Co. Along with husband and wife duo Mark and Kelly Huizink, the trio have created a business that has become one of Canada’s most regarded outfits.

Located on Brunswick Street in Downtown Halifax, the brewery is on the doorstep of the Halifax Citadel National Historic Site, home to a fortress that, thanks to its role back in the 18th century, is to thank for Halifax existing as a city today.

And while much has, unsurprisingly, changed throughout Halifax in that time, the Citadel’s brewery neighbour has been on a journey of its own since starting out back in early 2017.

Before he got into beer, Jeremy Taylor was working at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, a mere 5,500km west in Vancouver.

“I conducted genetic sequencing of the HIV virus,” he says. “I would check out the predominant strain of HIV in somebody’s system and then based on that, recom-

Being able to brew more lagers is super exciting because they are beers I really enjoy making and really enjoy drinking,” Jeremy Taylor, 2 Crows Brewing Co mend a cocktail of drugs to beat up that strain. I really enjoyed it, as it was really important work. But I didn’t really want to be a lab rat for the rest of my life.”

It would just so happen then that a gift from his wife Elaine Moody (then partner) from Dan’s Homebrewing, would put Taylor on the path to a different profession.

“It was a really, really simple homebrew kit from Dan’s Homebrewing in Vancouver. It was basically a bucket with a false bottom that you would wrap in a blanket to keep warm. It really lit a spark in me,” he recalls. “I’ve always enjoyed baking, cooking and working with flavours, so getting that kit and being able to play with yeast a little bit was really enjoyable.

Being able to tinker a little while geeking out on the science aspect was something I was passionate about.”

While Taylor didn’t class himself as anything resembling a “beer fanatic”, he approached the field with the drive and desire to create. However, he was enamoured by beers such as Fat Tug, the Northwest-style India Pale Ale from BC’s Driftwood Brewery and a move to Edinburgh, Scotland would broaden his horizons further.

“I found myself aged 27/28 having worked in lab jobs that paid a decent wage alongside good hours. While brewing appealed, I didn’t want to go in mopping floors. If I wanted to get where I wanted to be, I knew I’d need to study first,” he remembers.

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And by 2013, that meant undertaking an MSc Brewing and Distilling in Edinburgh at the venerable Heriot-Watt University.

“My mum is from there while my dad is from London originally, so I spent a decent amount of time in the UK when growing up. At that point, Canadian brewing programmes were in their infancy, and I had no connection to the courses in the US or Germany so Edinburgh was the perfect fit.”

He adds: “I also appreciated that Heriot-Watt offered an MSc and considering my laboratory work was tied to academia, it gave me an option to pursue that element of brewing in the future.”

Taylor enjoyed his time in the “fantastic” city of Edinburgh. With some memorable drinking experiences and some….harder to remember. “Being surrounded by people so passionate in both brewing and distilling was inspiring,” he recalls. “I built lifelong friendships from that programme, which I really value. It was a great time.”

Upon completing his studies, Taylor was offered the chance to return home with a role at Bridge Brewing Co in North Vancouver.

“They hired me straightaway, which was pretty foolish of them!” he smiles.

“I learned a lot at Heriot-Watt but you have your head in the books a lot of the time.

Joining Bridge allowed me to express myself more on the production side, which was a great experience.”

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Working at Bridge for nearly three years not only involved Taylor overseeing a site move that increased capacity ten-fold, it also enabled him to flex his creative muscles with recipe formulation. Beers that would go on to win awards along the way, too. “To get that experience in production along with the confidence of winning awards was a special feeling. It made be realise I could do this,” he says.

But following that valuable, rewarding time with Bridge, it was time for something new.

While Taylor’s family reside on Vancouver’s North Shore, his wife Elaine hails from Dartmouth in Nova Scotia and the plan was always to move there.

“Vancouver is home and it’s a cool place to hang out, but it’s very big, busy and expensive.

Knowing that I’d be on a brewer salary, it’s not somewhere I would see myself able to have a family and settle down,” he says. “So moving to Halifax was part of the long term plan.

and I flew out to meet Mark and Kelly so we could discuss our plans and put them together,” he explains. “We realised that we were definitely aligned in terms of the type of beers we wanted to be making and what our what our priorities are were.”

“At Heriot Watt, I developed a business plan for a Halifax-based brewery. But being a brewer, I completely neglected the financials and instead focused on market research, what kit I’d need and things like that!”

Taylor adds: “It’s a great partnership because I’m allowed to focus on the beer and I leave them to focus on the numbers!”

Enter Mark and Kelly Huizink. Half Belgian/ Half Dutch, Mark found himself in Halifax some 20 years ago for University. It’s here he’d meet Kelly, who was born and raised in the city and someone that was enthused with the idea of opening a local business.

“Mark is an accountant but he decided he didn’t want to be sitting in an office staring at the computer, so they were actually simultaneously developing a business plan for Halifax-based brewery,” says Taylor.

“But being an accountant, he was only focusing on the financials and completely neglected the brewing aspect. So he got to the point where it was all coming together, and he was needing a brewer to be part of that.”

He would reach out to a family friend Ali Hosein, who went to school with Taylor.

While Hosein is from the area, he was working and living elsewhere, with no immediate plans to return to Nova Scotia.

“Thankfully though he knew that I had plans to make that move, he put us in touch

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It was the Christmas of 2015 when the team would visit some potential premises. While a site opposite the current location at 1932 Brunswick St was initially eyed, they were then shown what would become the now home of 2 Crows.

“At first we felt it just looked like the bottom floor of a condo building, which didn’t really excite us. But once inside, we saw the potential it had. From the flooring that we could easily specify to withstand the tanks, to the 23 foot-high ceilings, it offered a lot,” says Taylor. “So I suppose we just stumbled across the place, and we’re grateful.”

He adds: “So come May 2016 my wife Elaine and I packed our car and drove out here, with construction starting the next month.”

And while there were hopes to open the doors at the end of that year, 2 Crows would eventually open to the world in January 2017. Brewing at 2 Crows takes a 24hl (20bbl) DME brewhouse, brewing into 48hl (40bbl) unitanks. The brewhouse is a 2 vessel system featuring a combined mash/lauter tun and a combined kettle/whirlpool.

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It’s a great partnership because I’m allowed to focus on the beer and I leave them to focus on the numbers!,” Jeremy Taylor, 2 Crows Brewing Co Beers at 2 Crows are markedly diverse in style. Recent anniversary releases include a Barrel-aged Berliner with Concord grapes, a Lagered Wild Ale w. Oranges and Kekfrankos Grapes, a Baltic Porter w.

Marquette Pomace and Cocoa Nibs and a Saison/Lager Hybrid w L’Acadie Pomace.

These complement Belgian Table Beers, Pale Ales and the incredibly-popular AC Light Lager.

“AC Light Lager takes the idea of local beer to a new level by utilizing barley grown on

PEI and malted by Shoreline Malting Co., whole-leaf hops grown by Lakeview Hops in New Brunswick, and beautifully soft Halifax water,” says Taylor. “It has become more important than ever to support local partners of the craft brewing industry. By sourcing local ingredients we are celebrating the rich culture and history of Maritime growers while simultaneously reducing its supply chain, costs and the carbon footprint of the beer it produces.”

Taylor is conscious of the ever-changing demands from the consumer and aware that a brewery such as 2 Crows needs to adapt to these dynamics, too.

“We’ve always tried be fairly forward-thinking and to keep our fingers on the pulse of what’s going on in the world,” he says.

“I think people appreciate that. But it’s all about balance, too.

“There’s still a major part of the consumer base that are more ‘traditional’ in their tastes, which means much of what we do is lost on them, and that’s fine. It’s up to us to do what’s best for us. That means being excited about the beer but producing beer that will hopefully sell some decent volume, too.”

And the recent AC Light Lager, which sees demand outgripping supply, is one such example.

“My beer preferences have evolved, just as everybody’s preferences have changed, so we have shifted production somewhat on what people want,” he says. “Being able to

brew more lagers is super exciting because they are beers I really enjoy making and really enjoy drinking. And it seems that others do as well!”

In the five years since starting out, 2 Crows Brewing Co has made an indelible mark on the Canadian brewing landscape. It’s making fantastic beers, served on-site from one of Halifax’s best beer spots. But for the team, the business also needs to mean more than the liquid itself.

“Since day one we’ve been focused on being good community members,” he says.

“But in recent years, events in and outside of beer made us realise it’s no good quietly thinking this way. We need to act on it.”

This has involved partnering with Change Is Brewing, a local BIPOC collective that aims to give underrepresented people in the food and drink sector a voice. They have also raised funds for and worked with organizations such as the Africville Heritage Museum, Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre, Laing House, Make a Wish and ALS Society of Nova Scotia.

Taylor goes on: “We want to make this place as welcoming as possible. We want to be diverse and we want to be open. We have an Equity Diversity statement posted here at the brewery and online, too. This means working with everyone and making beer for everyone.

“We want 2 Crows to be a place that’s representative of the whole community and that is safe for the whole community.”

STABILITY FOAM STABILITY FOR CRAFT BREWERS

SCIENCE

THE STABILITY OF BEER FOAM IS A CRITICAL CHARACTERISTIC THAT REFLECTS BEER QUALITY AND IS ONE OF THE FEW CONSUMER PERCEPTIBLE METRICS FOR BEER, AND AS SUCH IS A VERY IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTIC TO MEASURE AND MAINTAIN FOR CRAFT BREWERS. HERE ROB MCCAIG, A SENIOR ADVISOR, TECHNICAL SERVICES AT FIRST KEY CONSULTING, TAKES A CLOSER LOOK AT POTENTIAL ISSUES AND VARIOUS SOLUTIONS WHEN IT COMES TO FOAM.

of foam stability that can be controlled by the craft brewer. It will also describe simpler methods useful to the craft brewer for monitoring foam stability.

and burst owing to the incredible amount of surface tension in the round shape, but the foam active compounds help to stabilize and maintain the bubbles.

The importance of beer foam to the consumer cannot be overstated. It is one of the few beer analytics that is immediately noticed by the consumer. A good foam head is looked at favourably by the consumer, enhancing their beer-drinking experience and can cause a consumer to overlook some minor deficiencies in the beer.

Foams with smaller bubble size are more stable, which is exhibited when nitrogen is used. Nitrogen is more stable in beer and as such created smaller, tighter more stable bubbles that are longer lasting as foam.

The foam has a collectively huge surface area, such that a pint of beer foam can have the equivalent surface area of a normal sized room. Finally a nucleation site is required in the vessel or the container beer is contained in to create the bubbles which eventually become the foam head.

There is a direct correlation in the consumers mind to better quality. Beer foam is protective, preventing the direct contact of oxygen with the liquid beer, thereby slowing down oxidation. Beer foam, by its’ nature enhances the beer flavour, as the aroma carried in the beer foam can define the beer. Beer foam also helps to reduce beer bitterness by trapping some of the bitter compounds, removing them from the beer liquid.

Of course, too much foam on a beer can be negative in most cases, although Pilsner Urquell in Czech Republic has created three different pours with ever increasing foam, such that one pour is 100% wet thick creamy foam (called Mliko). The varying amounts of foam create different characters in the beer that make each type of pour a different flavour.

any things can affect foam stability, from raw materials to the brewing process and the packaging process.

Phil Leinhart, Senior Advisor, Technical Services at First Key Consulting says: “Along with the obvious senses of smell and taste, beer drinkers also use sight for the enjoyment of beer. One of the most enticing visual aspects of a well poured beer is a creamy, stable head”

Use of adjuncts as well as hops, and the act of dry hopping can affect foam stability.

Mash regime, boil control, clarification (filtration and centrifugation) all exhibit effects on beer foam. In packaging, CO2 control can affect foam stability as well. This paper will discuss those important aspects

Beer foam is essentially all about surface tension. A nucleation site is required to create the CO2 bubble, but the beer must have carbonation and contain components that are foam positive, such as proteins from the malt and iso-alpha acids from the hops.

The bubbles created want to destabilize

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In measuring beer foam, the consumer generally looks at amount of foam, the creaminess of the foam, the collapse rate (or foam stability) and the cling or the foam that remains on the side of the glass. Most of the methods for measuring foam only look at foam stability, i.e. how long lasting is the foam. The standard method in use is the Nibem foam tester.

A sample package of beer is cooled to a standard temperature and dispensed in a measuring device creating an excess of foam over the device. The Nibem unit has a probe that measures the time required to reduce the foam 30 mm.

In order to standardize, the Nibem is maintained in a room with a constant temperature and pressure. Other devices such as the Steinfurth foam analyzer and the LG-automatic foam tester will also measure the foam stability albeit in different manners, but still generating the foam stability in time (usually seconds). This equipment is expensive and can be beyond the budget of a craft brewery. Other methods exist that can be accomplished without expensive specialized equipment.

The Constant method is one that can be used for minimal cost. In this method a well rinsed 1 litre beaker is used. Beer is

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pre-equilibrated to 4oC, and the package is placed in a clamp in a stand, 4 cm above the beaker. The clamp is inverted, pouring the beer rapidly into the beaker in up to 5 seconds. The package is allowed to drain for an additional 15-20 seconds.

The beaker is covered with a glass petri dish and the beer liquid height, and the total height (beer liquid plus foam) is measured at intervals of 1.5, 2, 3, 4 and 5 minutes after covering. The foam height is calculated as the difference between the total height and the beer liquid height. If done under standard conditions this test can be used to compare production to determine if foam is remaining stable, increasing or decreasing.

One simple elegant method from the “Pope of Foam”, Charlie Bamforth involves adding 5 mL of degassed beer to a screw-top tube (15 cm length by 1.5 cm internal diameter). The tube is shaken in a 40 cm arc 10 times in 3 seconds.

The foam height and liquid heights are measured from the tube bottom 30 minutes after shaking. The larger the foam, the more stable the foam is. This can be standardized to measure production as per the Constant method.

To truly measure foam from a customer perspective a beer is poured into a standard beer clean glass generating 1-2 inches of foam. Examine the foam under good illumination looking at foam colour (dull or white), texture (smooth even foam or are there rough patches) and are the bubbles small or large and even? Using a stopwatch allow the head to collapse and mark the time required for the beer liquid to show through. As in the previous two methods, this can be used under standard conditions to assess the production consistency.

If a brewer is having issues with foam, what can affect foam? Raw materials and brewing and packaging processes can all

influence final beer foam. In terms of raw materials overmodified malt reduces foam owing to the reduction of the larger protein molecules that are foam positive. As more modification takes place, these proteins are broken down and are no longer foam positive. Conversely, if the malt is under modified, more of the foam active proteins are still whole and therefore increases foam.

Higher friability and lower total soluble nitrogen will also reduce foam as in both cases lower protein is available. The use of most adjuncts decreases foam in that it will result in less malt therefore less protein.

The use of wheat and barley as adjunct though will be foam positive and result in better foam quality. Hops play a role in promoting better quality foam. Isomerized extracts are better than pellets which are better than whole hops for foam, so the more processed the hop the better for foam.

Iso-alpha acids in foam promote better foam cling while the use of hop oils and dry hopping in the process will result in poorer quality foam. The use of dried yeast will adversely affect foam quality. If re-using yeast, increased generation numbers will result in poorer foam quality, a good target is no more than 10 generations.

However, when propagating new yeast, the first generation usually has poorer foam.

Any parameters that adversely affect yeast growth such as higher temperatures and higher wort dissolved oxygen will result in poorer foam quality. Anything adversely affecting yeast health results in poorer foam.

In the brewhouse, wet milling is better than dry milling for foam. A protein rest or extended protein rest is foam negative as this results in the breakdown of the foam positive proteins more. Higher mash in temperatures, lower mash pH and reducing mash oxygen pickup is better for foam quality. Extended mashes are poor for foam as are the use of kettle finings. By

reducing the residency time in the whirlpool and reducing wort cooling time, foam quality is improved. Of course, higher gravity brewing with adjuncts where the malt is reduced will result in poorer foam quality.

In fermentation, gentler yeast handling is foam positive, storing yeast with minimal mixing and at temperatures near, but not below 0oC. Pitching with lower viability yeast reduces foam. Daily removal of spent yeast in the fermenter and yeast removal improves foam quality by eliminating the leakage of exogenous proteinases from the yeast that reduce foam positive proteins.

Lower temperatures during fermentation is better for foam, aiding in improved yeast health and the reduction of exogenous proteinases. Over foaming of fermenters in fermentation is foam negative as some of the needed proteins are left clinging to the sidewall of the fermenter. Stirred fermentations and rapid cooling after fermentation both results in poorer quality foam because of the pressure they put on yeast health.

In ageing, a shorter cooling/filtration or centrifugation run improves foam quality as does reduced handling or transfers (ie unitank process is better than using separate fermenter and ageing tank). Colder run temperatures and the use of nitrogen on tank transfer can both improve foam quality. In filtration, membrane filtration is more foam positive than diatomaceous earth filtration.

The use of tannic acid for physical stabilization (i.e. haze) is foam negative but the addition of a small amount of zinc (0-2 ppm) is better for foam. Natural carbonation (krausening) is better than the use of a mechanical carbonator, and the use of a ribbon carbonator is more foam positive that a pinpoint carbonator.

The use of a nitrogen/CO2 mix in packaging will improve foam. Aseptic packaging (no pasteurization) will result in poorer foam quality because of the non-destruction of proteases. Over gassing on fillers will reduce foam as will the use of wetting agents or defoamers in bottle rinsers. In final package the use of widgets and in dispense, the use of sparklers can increase foam quality.

If there are issues with foam, the brewer can look closely at his raw materials, the type and amount used as well as process in resolving foam issues. It must be noted though, that the brewer should employ a systematic scientific process in changing raw materials and process in order to determine the exact source of the foam issues.

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MASCOT BREWERY’S AARON PROTHRO WANTS TO SEE MORE MORE ACCEPTANCE, MORE ACCESSIBILITY, AND MORE INCLUSIVITY IN CRAFT BEER. AND HE BELIEVES TO AFFECT A REAL CHANGE, IT MUST START AT THE TOP.

“

I always admired craft beer’s ability to build communities.

I just never felt that I belonged to any of them.”

It’s April, spring has sprung and that means the Toronto Blue Jays have returned to their home at the Rogers Centre for the first games of the latest campaign in the AL East.

It also means that things have got busy, really busy for Aaron Prothro and his team at Mascot Brewery. The brewery’s King Street West location, which opened its doors back in 2019, is only a 10 minute walk from the 53,000 capacity stadium.

And while the community of Jays-supporting fans, both feverish and loyal have re-

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We need to do more to ensure craft beer is accessible for all.”

turned en-masse, Prothro is musing about the other such group.

“When we opened up at our original spot back in 2015 I was excited about the location, excited about the project and excited about beer. But I knew I also probably had a different perspective on things than many of my peers,” he recalls. “I was an outsider, you know?”

Son to an African-American father and a Caucasian mother, Prothro says someone of his background “wasn’t represented” in the world of beer.

He explains: “When it comes to beer, there are barriers put up. There are many positives but there is also a lot of pretension and elitism.

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“That contradicts my values as a human but also in how I want to operate a business. I feel the main purpose of craft is bigger than the liquid. It’s about bringing people together over beer. When you’re constantly focusing solely on the product itself, you run the risk of falling into an echo chamber.

“You should aim to create a sophisticated, unique, delicious product but also desire to provide a space that is both inclusive and welcoming. We need to do more to ensure craft beer is accessible for all.”

And one key way Prothro strives to do just that is Mascot Brewery’s popular King Street West location and later this year, its Etobicoke brewery and taproom, too.

“The taproom was integral is creating exposure for Mascot and helping it evolve into what it is today,” he says. “This journey has been one of exploration. I don’t think our vision has ever changed, our purpose has never changed. We are hopefully just becoming better articulating things.”

Downtown is know as Mascot King, a destination for all things craft. Located at 220 King St. West it’s Mascot’s brew bar, beer garden and bottle shop. It’s designed to be a fun and inviting space where beer fans can enjoy a wide variety of freshly brewed beers on tap. It also boasts a beautiful backyard beer garden where patrons can enjoy a pint under the sun. The bottle shop features all the Mascot favourites for consumers to bring home and enjoy.

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Elsewhere, Mascot’s production facility in Etobicoke is a premises that also has an event space, taproom and bottleshop.

While the patio opened last summer, Prothro expects taproom to be fully-operational this year.

“Hospitality is all about servicing people,” he says. “There are many extremely passionate people in the world of beer, I’m one of them. But I think when it comes to the bigger picture, it has to be about more than that. It can’t just be about the liquid or the beer itself.”

Being accessible is of huge importance to Prothro, just as being an inclusive business is, also. And that means starting right at the top.

Another area Prothro has an unequivocal passion and drive is through industry collaboration. And Mascot has recently engaged in a black-owned brewery collaboration initiative.

“I don’t feel that people, especially people of colour or anybody that’s different, should be asking for a seat at the table for acceptance,” he says.

“Acceptance should be the standard and I think through black ownership is really how we affect change. As an owner, you are able to curate your own space that represents what your values are. And I think that’s how you really affect change in this space is more diverse ownership in the craft beer space.”

“It starts from what your vision is, and what your purpose as a brand is, and how you infuse that purpose into your operation?” he asks. “So when it comes to onboarding, you need to be asking relevant questions.”

Prothro adds: “So the black-owned brewery collaboration initiative is really about putting an exclamation mark on that point.

Prothro explains: “We have a culture questionnaire for onboarding and we’re very focused on making sure that our values at Mascot are infused into our hiring practices. You can’t have a team that doesn’t share those values.”

“We talk about having a seat at the table but for me it’s about building the table. And I think that for Mascot, as a higher purpose, it’s about changing the perspective on what craft actually is. And

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We talk about having a seat at the table but for me it’s about building the table.”

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how you see it right now isn’t a great representation of what it can be.

“With the lack of diversity inclusivity in the space, I think that exists because there’s no leadership in ownership. These collaborations are our Batman signal, it’s our way to saying ‘guys, you know we’re here and we want you to work here’.”

These values and that ethos are front and centre of everything Mascot does.

Just like its commitment to making great, high-quality beers, regardless of style. And many of these are imbibed first hand at its ever-popular Mascot King location.

“We deal with a very exploratory consumer.

They want to try different things. Whether that’s a lager, DDH IPA, pineapple, ginger and cucumber sour or a chocolate and coffee stout,” he argues.

While Prothro has a passion for all of these types of beers, his burning desire is to ensure Mascot’s name is synonymous with great lager. “We want to redefine what a new age lager is,” he says.

“We started with lager and we want to play in that space a lot more. So that means different yeasts, different processes, different flavours and different experiences. We want lager to be our niche and we’re excited by it.

“Our objective over the next year is to redefine what a new-age lager is for us. And using lager as a Trojan horse, so to speak, to create interesting flavour profiles, that people will hopefully be more open to

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trying because most people know what a lager is, right?”

But this lager focus doesn’t mean the brewery will slow down its innovation in other spaces, either.

He explains: “I think we make change through accessibility. I think we make change through targeting people who have been disenfranchised in the craft beer space. So that’s through making a Filipino beer, through making a Punjabi beer, a West-Indian beer.

“It means going to those communities and trying to collaborate with leaders in those communities to make these beers, because craft beer doesn’t really talk to those people.”

And with Prothro at the helm, there’s no risk of the conversation dying down anytime soon.

“It’s all about thinking differently, about getting new perspectives,” he says. “If you only talk to the same people about the same things then you’ll all think and do the same. I don’t want that, I want to be challenged on how I think and what I do.

And I believe craft beer could all do with a little bit more of that.”

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BOTANY

THE BOTANY OF BEER: ANATOMY OF A BOOK

FOCUS

GIUSEPPE CARUSO TEACHES FOREST BOTANY AT THE MEDITERRANEAN UNIVERSITY IN REGGIO CALABRIA AND BIOLOGY AND AGRICULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY AT THE ISTITUTO TECNICO AGRARIO “V. EMANUELE II” IN CATANZARO, ITALY. HE HOLDS A DOCTORATE IN ENVIRONMENTAL AND APPLIED BOTANY AND RESEARCHES THE FLORA AND VEGETATION OF SOUTHERN ITALY, AS WELL AS HABITAT RECOVERY AND RESTORATION PROCESSES. HE IS ALSO A BEER EXPERT AND TASTER.

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W

hen a few years ago I was asked, as a botanist, to lecture for a homebrewing course, I had been fatally forced to think about the variety of roles played by plants in the brewing process. It was immediately clear I would need to overcome my pubbased-knowledge of the beer universe, as well as to get full understanding of the most important processes involved in beer brewing.

On the other hand, while I was taking my first steps into the huge world of the relationship between plants and beer, it was impossible to imagine how far this research could go. If from the beginning it had been clear I had to write five hundreds botanical files and to draw as many botanical iconographies, I would probably have given up.

Instead, the project has grown slowly and gradually, although several times, a relatively close end has suddenly disappeared because of the additional brewing plants species found, in the meantime, inside some dusty book or obscure website from the other side of the world.

While my understanding of the brewing process was maturing, I started thinking ofbrewers as chefs. Both jobs rely on skill, based on tradition and scientific knowledge, to put together different ingredients, using appropriate tools and activating specific processes, in order to get a final product, be it a dish or a beer. Above all, a deep knowledge on ingredients is fundamental for every chef, as well as for every brewer.

Unfortunately, despite every effort, it was impossible to find a book not focused on

The botanist Giuseppe Caruso, author of The Botany of Beer

BREWERS JOURNAL CANADA

brewing techniques and processes, styles, recipes, ingredients.

And even those books on ingredients, were mainly focused on barley, hops, water, yeast. It’s just the long term consequence of the culture of Reinheitsgebot, The Purity Law imposed by William IV of Bavaria, back in 1516, stated that beer could be made just with barley malt, hops, water – and later – yeast, as the only permitted ingredients. This liberticide law, openly against gruit philosophy – that of ales made with a wide range of different herbs, often direct expression of a territory’s native flora – was seemingly responsible for the extinction of many endemic ale styles across continental Europe, and later, British Islands.

contribute to shape those of beer (e.g. biochemical composition of brewing plant) or styles (in which beer styles a brewing plant is used) or examples (commercial beers brewed with a specific plant). Finally, the source of the information on the brewing use of each specific plant is systematically unavailable, such as a detailed scientific picture of the plant (which simplify the identification of that species).

The foreword, written by Marika Josephson (co-owner and brewster at Scratch Brewing Company in Ava, Illinois) foregoes other introductive contributes occurring in the initial part of the book. The rest is made, as suggested

by the book subtitle, by more than 500 botanical beer-making profiles, each containing those information lacking in other books.

So, in addition to the correct scientific name (including genus, species and author who first described the species), the plant file contains the name of the botanical family to which that species belongs, an ink iconography, a detailed morphological description (following the consolidated scheme: root, stem, leaf, flower, fruit, seed), a short list of the closely related species; then, information on the geographic distribution and the ecology of that species, and even where it is cultivated.

Main beer ingredients today are exactly those imposed by purity law. So, water, barley (malted or not), hops and yeasts.

The rest, maybe only with the exception of other grains such as wheat, durum wheat, corn, rice, rye, oat, etc. is usually considered as “other ingredients”, a generic definition including hundreds and hundreds of different plants.

The first task, along the long way of writing The Botany of Beer/An Illustrated Guide to More Than 500 Plants Used in Brewing, was the ex-novo creation of a detailed list of plants worldwide used in brewing. Digging into the brewing literature was immediately clear that each single book on beer included a limited number of plant species, and just one of them treat more than two hundred species.

Numbers apart, many criticalities emerged from the analysis of existing literature. The first issue jumping at the eyes of the botanist was the frequent use of common plant names, instead of the scientific ones.

Common names are often ambiguous, suggesting sometimes the same name different plants or, on the contrary, the same name identifying different species.

The scientific name is usually univocal and unambiguous, and that’s why professional botanists prefer to use Latin binomial. Other ordinarily missed information regarding brewing plants are the morphological description of the plant, its biogeographical origin, ecology, cultivation area. No book seems to consider the species similar to known brewing plants (e.g. other species belonging to the same genus), as well as the taxa of subspecific rank (different subspecies or varieties could provide different characteristic to beer).

And, maybe more important, totally absent are crucial information on features which

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Cover page of The Botany of Beer

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Aside from botanical features, brewing information include: plant organs used in beer-making, possible toxicity, chemical composition, beer styles in which that plant is used. For those plants providing wood that somehow comes into contact with the beer during the brewing process (e.g. seasoning, smoking, etc.), also the characteristics of that specific wood are described. The file ends with recording the sources of brewing application of the studied plant. This, repeated 502 times, covers most of the 600 pages of the book, that ends with a glossary intended for non-botanical readers, an extensive bibliography, and an index of common names.

Putting all known beer plant ingredients – accompanied by significant botanical, biogeographical, ecological and agronomic information – together with the best available brewing knowledge in a single volume, is not only an unprecedented editorial project, but constitutes a deeper and more original cultural challenge, which aspires to broaden the horizons of the world of beer. If aim of the book was to offer an encyclopaedic knowledge on plant brewing ingredients to beer industry – first of all brewers – on the other hand the tools of botany are addressed to a wider awareness, to support sustainability (if wanted), and to promote a more authentic enhancement of the territories.

The brewer who wants to strongly identify his beer with a specific territory, for marketing or ethical reasons, now has the basic phytogeographic information to support

Image of Artemisia douglasiana, a brew species endemic of western US

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correct choices. He can buy raw materials from local organic farmers, or maybe even from foragers, as well as other products useful in the taproom promoting a neighbourhood economy with a reduced environmental impact.

An approach like this puts de facto the brewery at the center of a virtuose locally sustainable supply network. That’s exactly what Scratch, or better – Marika Josephson and Aaron Kleidon – are actually doing in Southern Illinois. On the other side, those brewers with an international mood, can more consciously buy exotic raw materials at the opposite side of the globe. But again, they can do it now with a renewed awareness.

Such suggestions, as well as other inevitable considerations, have certainly contributed to persuading Jennifer Crewe, head of Columbia University Press, to invest will and energy in this ambitious project. The Botany of Beer seems to have really everything needed to inspire important change in the beer industry.

But projects like The Botany of Beer, which promise to contribute to change, need visionaries. The Author and publisher have shown the direction. Now, it’s up to the brewers.

While Craft Revolution seems wearily switching from IPA to IPA, dosing hops with increasingly unlikely names, there are hundreds of other intriguing brewing ingredients that promise to open an exciting New Frontier. It would certainly be a pity if the brewing world would linger for a too long on the reassuring positions gained, when there is a whole world out there waiting to be put back into play.

Too many plants widely used in the past in the brewery, are today absolutely neglected as beer ingredients. Other plants have sadly been forgotten in the folds of history.

Some plants lend themselves to reviving extinct beer styles, while others certainly could help characterize new styles invented by the brewers creativity. Botany, after all, did its part of the job.

The fig (Ficus carica) is commonly used in the brewing industry in many Mediterranean countries

Inula magnifica, a species endemic of eastern Caucasus, whose root is used in brewing

Illustration of Ledum palustre subsp. palustre, a species widely used in the preparation of gruit in northern Europe a few centuries ago. His northern American relative, Ledum palustre subsp. groenlandicum, is used today by some brave brewers in Canada

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IN TRIBUTE

JOHN PICARD

A BREWERY FROM THE GROUND UP. LITERALLY JOHN PICARD, THE FOUNDER OF RAMBLIN’ ROAD BREWERY FARM, RECENTLY PASSED AWAY. HE WAS JUST 60 YEARS OF AGE.WHEN JOHN FIRST EXPLORED THE IDEA OF CREATING A PREMIUM CRAFT BREWERY IN HIS HOMETOWN OF LA SALETTE (NORFOLK COUNTY), WAYNE S. ROBERTS HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF HELPING BRING HIS BRAND TO LIFE. HIS WAS A STORY OF OVERCOMING INNUMERABLE OBSTACLES TO ACHIEVE A TRIUMPHANT LAUNCH AND CONSISTENT GROWTH AS THE LOCAL BREWERY EVERYBODY LOVED TO VISIT.

T

here is a special kind of soil in Norfolk County, Ontario called Fox Coarse. That was among the very first things John Picard wanted me to now about his nascent craft brewery.

Most people don’t know about Fox Coarse, or that Norfolk is Ontario’s Garden. It’s generally more famous for its tobacco legacy, and the revelry and raunch in Port Dover every Friday the 13th.

But when you discover, as I did from John Picard, that Norfolk is one of the most prolific and essential growing regions in Canada, you appreciate the soil’s importance. Because all that growing happens in fertile Fox Coarse. It was on and in that exact soil that John Picard grew his Ramblin’ Road Brewery Farm.

sion was to make delicious, farm fresh beers that featured the flavour and character of locally grown hops. The soil would pave the road to success.

RACING ON THE ROAD TO RAMBLIN’ ROAD My first road trip to Norfolk County in the Spring of 2012 saw me arrive on a cold, dreary day in the pumpkin festival town of Waterford. That’s where John suggested we meet. It had been raining heavily for a few days and the roads were... challenging.

As a farmer himself, born and raised in Norfolk, John knew the potential of the soil. So, before he put a shovel in the ground to create his brew house, he planted hops right on his property. For John, his pas- Ramblin’ Road’s hop garden in full bloom

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For over two years, John and I had been staying in touch. He was planning on launching his craft brewery. I had craft beer experience with the Upper Canada, Steam Whistle and Creemore Springs brands.

“Let’s meet for a tour,” John suggested.

“Absolutely,” I agreed. “See you there.”

Arriving in Waterford, I naturally presumed the brewery would be located there. But it’s actually where John did the manufacturing for his spiffy, Picard-brand chain of tasty treat and snack stores.

“Uh, where’s the brewery, John?” I asked.

“Well, it’s a little out of the way so, follow me to get there. Look for the Canadian flag.

We’re on Swimming Pool Road, south of La Salette. And drive fast, right?” he said.

Right. John’s idea of driving fast, on rainsoaked country roads, was akin to fleeing armed gunmen as you hurtled along behind his pick-up truck version of a hover craft. If his tires ever touched the road, it was by mistake. He flew. And when he said, “look for the Canadian flag,” he was referring to a giant mural painted on the entire north wall of his brewery, measuring 120’ feet long by 30’ high. It did not flap in the wind.

After an extensive tour and impassioned briefing by John, who talked

John Picard and Wayne S. Roberts at the Brewery Farm, November 2019

BREWERS JOURNAL CANADA

about as fast as he drove, we parted company with a commitment to regroup in a few weeks.

Driving back to Toronto, I was impressed, inspired. John had a compelling vision, and he knew why and how his beers would be special. He had big ideas about a destination location. I instinctively knew he could accomplish it all. My head was filled with ideas from the start.

QUICK! LET’S LAUNCH A NEW BREWERY! What followed in the ensuing weeks and months was a whirlwind collaboration to develop all the necessities for a successful launch. The most important of which was the beer itself. John invited my opinion on his recipes as they were fermenting. They tasted great right out of the tanks!

I spent many summer days that year touring the county and hanging with John to get a feel for the community. Even attended a pre-opening dinner event at the annual Norfolk County Fair in October. John offered a sneak peek there of his (as yet) unbranded beer for an intensely curious crowd. They loved it.

Success followed success with award winning brews, the addition of the most addictive kettle chips you’ve ever tasted, and later, a restaurant upstairs serving up fresh, local beef burgers and authentic chipper fries you can’t resist.

The Brewery Farm became a gathering place for festivals, car shows, club meetings, weddings ... you name it, it hap- Ramblin’ Road main entrance pened at Ramblin’ Road. For John, it was a playground where he could who spoke in the chapel that day shared create unique beers; a pulpit to debate and the same narrative. He was a local hero kid around with his neighbours and naysayand a legendary personality, and now he ers; and a joy to watch it catch on so well was gone. with people who gravitated to it every day of the week.

Later, in a private grave side ceremony, they laid him down in the good earth of This year, nearly a decade on, Ramblin’ Norfolk County. In the same Fox Coarse Road was sailing along, and the future held soil he grew up on, and on which he’d much promise for bountiful growth. built a distinctive craft brewery that has grown to become a beloved fixture in Ontario’s Garden.

THE ROAD AHEAD CHANGES John’s journey along the Ramblin’ Road ended abruptly and all too soon earlier this year.

Shortly after that dinner, on a brilliant, sunlit Saturday morning in December 2012, the parking lot at John Picard’s all new Ramblin Road Brewery Farm was packed by nine o’clock for the Grand Opening at ten.

A robust and active man, he fell ill in late 2021 and, despite valiant efforts throughout the first weeks of 2022 to arrest the progress of his illness, John suffered a fatal setback and passed away on March 14th. He was only 60.

Later that afternoon, every bottle of beer John and his team had packaged was sold. The following weekend, same deal.

Ramblin’ Road was a hit, and still is to this day, becoming an established destination location for the Norfolk and surrounding community. And it further cemented John’s country road cred as one of the county’s most favoured sons.

The impact in Norfolk was sudden and overwhelming. At his visitation, hundreds lined up, just like they did for that boffo Grand Opening in 2012. At his funeral service, on a glistening, bright morning in late March, in his hometown of Waterford, his family and friends paid tribute to his life, his legacy and his love of community. It was standing room only. All

And while John’s travels are over, his family is adapting, the brewery staff and community are rallying, and the journey along the Ramblin’ Road continues.

Wayne S. Roberts was John’s friend and co-conspirator. As president and creative director of Toronto’s Blade Creative Branding, he created a complete branding program for John’s brewery, including the name, brand narrative, packaging, cinematic video, and a host of other tactics that launched and helped grow John’s iconic brewery on Swimming Pool Role in La Salette. Drop in some time. Look for the Canadian flag.

Video link: The Road to Ramblin Road https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1350244581700870

From left: Ramblin’ Road’s founder John Picard in his hop garden, out front, and at the fermentation tank.

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All photos by Wayne S. Roberts

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THE

MAGAZINE

FOR

THE

HOMEBREWING

ENTHUSIAST

HOMEBREWING The sector, reimagined

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CONTENTS

Homebrewer Focus

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We are thrilled to introduce you all to Mark Hubbard, a decorated award-winning homebrewer who hails from Toronto, Ontario. He shows us why having hobbies like homebrewing can be a great creative outlet that allows us to expand our knowledge while expanding our circle of friends! He is a prominent member of Canada’s largest homebrew club and is excited to share with us his passion for learning all things homebrewing, love for those funky beers (and bottling), along with ways to incorporate brewing into the philanthropic side of your life.

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Mark has generously provided us with his secret recipe for “Cream Abdul-Jabbar” - a brew that earned him multiple awards at the nation-wide Brew Slam competition!

Mark also noted that Brown Ales are missing out on the attention they deserve and provided us with his “Hogtown Brown ‘’ that is sure to re-acquaint us with this lovely beer style.

Gadget Corner

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We’re going in a new, exciting direction in this journal issue. Join Sheena Strauss as she takes us on an uncharted journey! As homebrewers are adding more tech & tools we start to see some exploring the lab side of brewing and Sheena will show you how you can take your gear and build upon it to become something of a ‘mad-scientist’ in your homebrew lair. This will be a multi-part series that everyone can find something to enjoy so strap in!

Brew Day Tips - Spent Gains…Three Ways!

Brewing Up Something New

67

For this brew day tip, we are thrilled to showcase a special guest contributor, Ainslie Forbes, from the Food Ferments department at Escarpment Labs. Ainslie was kind enough to take us through multiple methods of how you can take your brew day spent grains- and prepare them so that you can explore many recipe options while minimizing brew day waste.

he long awaited Spring is finally here. For many Canadians, it is a time to get out and hike, garden, and enjoy a beer on the patio. For us homebrewers, it can also mean there is an extra spring in our step as we get excited for the outdoor brew days in the warming sunshine, planting hop rhizomes, teaching buddies how to brew, building something new for the brewery, finding new and creative ways to utilize brew day wates, and participating in Canadian Homebrew Day on Saturday June 4th, 2022.

In true blooming fashion, for Spring 2022, we have assembled a great cast! From a funky homebrewer that is passionate about growing with community, a pro brewer that grew a career from the ground up, a homebrewer hatching the beginnings of a homebrew lab, and a food ferments specialist who takes a scientific approach to drying spent grains that encourages brining the circular economy to our brew days. We hope you enjoy and find inspiration for growth and new beginnings within your journey!

We want to hear from you!

Fellow homebrewers (all brewing types welcome), we are inviting you to reach out to us by emailing Sheena at knwl.on.tap@ gmail.com to play an active role in shaping our homebrew community.

We want to provide opportunities for the community to help continue to build something great together.

We have also created a Survey for you to give us feedback on the Homebrew Journal and what you would like to see from us this year. Use the QR code below to access the survey.

From Janes and Joes to all-out Pros Hailing from Beamsville Ontario (close to Niagara Falls), we have Brewmaster and Director of Operations Sarah Casorso from Bench Brewing Company. Sarah’s start into the commercial side of brewing was born of ambition, drive, and making connections.

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Thank you all for reading, contributing, and the kind words you share. Your support helps the Canadian homebrew community grow and we wish you all a brewtastic Spring!

Happy Brewing Everyone! :D Cheers!

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HOMEBREWER FOCUS

BEAUTY IN SIMPLICITY

IN THIS EDITION WE’RE PROUD TO PRESENT MARK HUBBARD. A DECORATED COMPETITION BREWER FROM TORONTO WITH A BREWING PHILOSOPHY OF “KEEP THINGS SIMPLE AND ALWAYS BE LEARNING!”

M

ark is a fellow homebrewer that I happened to come across on IG one day. We have a lot of similarities, with our brew system, working in pharma, and having a nostalgic attachment to an iconic Toronto-based homebrew supply shop - Toronto Brewing! This is a place where I used to make day trips to the big city and shop for five recipes at a time!

(This was before shops opened up closer to home.)

Mark also makes awesome labels for his bottles and his mixed-fermentation brews are a thing to behold!

This is one brewer that you will want to follow on the socials as he takes you on his homebrew journey.

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SERVING BEER I BREWED WITH MY FRIEND CHRIS AT PEOPLE’S PINT!

Mark Hubbard o Instagram: @fullcircleales o Toronto, ON o Clubs: GTA Brews o Homebrewing for 5 years o Brews: Beer Humble Beginnings I started drinking craft beer several years ago when I discovered that there were so many different, flavourful styles out there and not just crushable lagers. This inspired me to try to brew my own, to learn more about the different flavours and how they’re made, and to see if I could make beer at home that’s as good as what I got from

local breweries. My homebrewing experience began 5 years ago, brewing my first batch (an APA) in the spring of 2017.

I brewed roughly every two weeks for the first few years and I’ve now got over roughly 130 batches under my belt… though I’ve slowed down quite a bit over the last year.

Over time, as friends began enjoying my beers, that helped to motivate me too.

Today, it’s the never-ending challenge of brewing the best beer possible and the benefit of always having whatever styles I feel like in the fridge that still excites me about brewing.

Before I started homebrewing, a friend and I went to a U-brew/ferment-on-premise place to “brew” a batch of beer. We just dumped bagged wort into a bucket and added some yeast, and came back to bottle it two weeks later. I felt like surely there

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S W BU DDIE E R B E M HO

was more to brewing than that, so I looked up homebrewing afterwards to see what the process was like and it sounded right up my alley, so I bought John Palmer’s “How to Brew”, visited the local homebrew shop - Toronto Brewing - and the rest was history! I also work in the biopharma industry so some of the equipment/process similarities and a hyper-hygienic mindset helped me to learn quickly!

A Fast Learner With a Competitive Spirit Soon after brewing my journey began I became a member of GTA Brews, Canada’s largest homebrew club. I have been a member since 2017. Being part of a club has made a huge difference in my homebrewing journey. Talking to a mix of new and veteran brewers over the years has been so valuable and I’ve learned a lot from each, and made some great friends.

Our club, as well as many others, also run some fun events like in-person meetings, advent calendars, ingredient bulk buys, and more, so I highly recommend trying to join one for anyone new to brewing.

Competitions have also been a big part of my brewing journey. I began entering some comps on the national circuit in 2018 and won a few medals which was quite exciting in only my 2nd year of brewing. I’m quite a competitive person so I decided to give competitions my all in 2019 and set

brewersjournal.ca

BREWING AT PE OPLE’S PINT

a goal of finishing top 20 in the Brewer of the Year circuit. I planned my batches carefully around comp dates, and ended up taking home 25 medals across 10 national comps and 2 local comps. I ended up 5th in the BOTY standings! I was super-proud of beating my goal as well as for helping GTA Brews win Club of the Year! I’ve only entered one competition since the pandemic started, and likely won’t give the BOTY circuit my all again as that was a lot of work and planning, but I will always look forward to Brew Slam each year.

Keep It Simple, and Focus On the Fundamentals In terms of brewing my beer, it seems like everyone has an electric all-in-one system nowadays, so I guess I’m kind of old school in this respect. I have an 8 gallon kettle that doubles as my HLT, and a 5 gallon Igloo cooler with a false bottom that I use as my mash tun. I heat my strike water in my kettle then mash in, and then add sparge water to the kettle and heat it. I run the first runnings off into a bucket, add my sparge water to the mash tun, and then add the first runnings and sparge runoff into the kettle and begin the boil. I don’t even own a wort chiller, and just make an ice bath in my kitchen sink that I plunge my kettle into.

Other than slowly adding more fermenters for sour beer, my equipment really hasn’t changed that much. My first five batches

were brewed with malt extract in a 5 gallon aluminum pot but, like many new homebrewers, the switch to all grain came quickly. I bought a better kettle, a mash tun, and a few gadgets like a refractometer, pH meter, and so on. I’ve been brewing with the same equipment for years now.

Needless to say, there really isn’t anything special about my equipment that makes a big difference in my beer. (If it works, why change it?) I’m definitely not a gear head as I believe having a solid process and understanding all the fundamentals of brewing makes way more of a difference in the quality of my beer than owning the newest, shiniest equipment. My advice to new brewers: Don’t worry about spending hundreds of dollars on fancy, brand-name equipment - get your process down pat first!

I buy nearly all of my equipment and ingredients from Toronto Brewing. They have everything a homebrewer would need as well as some super-helpful and friendly employees, and I always love stopping in.

They also ship nation-wide!

Nothing Beats a Good Bottle of Funk!

I absolutely love mixed-fermentation beers, so my fermentation equipment is split between clean and funky beers. I’ve got one temperature-controlled fermenter for clean

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beers (as more than one clean batch at a time would be way too much beer for me!)

It’s an SS Brew Bucket with a Fermentation Temperature Stabilization system (FTSs) running into a mini fridge for temperature control. For the longer term mixed-culture beers, I’ve got three stainless and two plastic fermenters… none of which are temperature-controlled. In terms of packaging I’m among the maybe 1% of homebrewers who, after many years, still bottle condition all of their beer! I’ve never minded bottling and since all my funky/sour beers would get bottled anyway, I just didn’t see the point in investing in or figuring out the whole kegging and keezer process. I like taking bottles out with me and gifting them to friends too, so I’ve never really considered changing up my packaging technique… despite many others trying to convince me!

everything you would normally hear frequently from other experienced brewers: control your fermentation temperature, clean and sanitize very diligently, minimize oxygen exposure, and learn how to treat your water.

But honestly, what I think improves homebrew quality the most is just becoming immersed in the hobby. Go to club meetings, read books, listen to podcasts, ask lots of questions, brew frequently, enter competitions, talk to others about your recipes, and so on.

If you have the time to go all in with this awesome hobby, you’ll see your beer improve by leaps and bounds very quickly.

Sheena’s Final Thoughts: There is no substitute for solid fundamentals and Mark shows us all we can be great brewers with any equipment and that expanding your knowledge base, being active in your local homebrew scene, setting goals - and of course brewing a boatload of beer!

- is going to up your game while making some amazing friends along the way!

I hope this shows that we are our own brewers with our own journeys and stories to share and I love to see brewers of Mark’s caliber being so passionate and involved in the community, helping to make each and every one of us great!

Brewing Is My Rewarding Creative Outlet My favorite aspect of homebrewing is just having something in my life that challenges me and takes some thought and work, with a tasty outcome at the end. I think having hobbies is important for adults, and homebrewing has provided me with a creative outlet, goals and continued learning, and helped me meet many great people.

I’d recommend it for anyone who enjoys beer and has the time to dive into a new hobby and give it their all. It’s very rewarding once you get all set up and know what you’re doing.

And I’ve certainly had some memorable homebrew experiences. Taking the cake, would have to be the few times where I’ve been able to serve my beer to the public at a local brewery called People’s Pint Brewing Company; a brewery which has homebrewing roots and are really great supporters of our club and the hobby in general! The first time was as part of a club event for Toronto Beer Week where a bunch of GTA homebrewers brewed beers to serve there to show the public that good beer can be brewed at home. The other time was for a charity comedy event, and two of my closest homebrew friends and I each brewed a beer for it and served them during the comedy show.

I’m proud to say that the event raised over $2,700 for the Alzheimer Society of Ontario!

Parting Advice For New Brewers Finally, if I had to give some advice to new homebrewers, part of it would be

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VORLAU FING, TH E OLD F ASHIONE D WAY

BREWERS JOURNAL CANADA

AME L OF F L A W THE

BOTTLING A SOUR

BEER WITH CHERRIES BREWING A 1 BB L BATCH AT A LO CAL BREWERY IN NEW BRUNSW ICK, WHERE I’M FROM

INE A SOUR BEER OF M WITH RASPBERRIES

MY TYPICAL BREWDAY SETUP

SPARGE RUNOFF

MY BREW DEN, WHICH HOUSES MY FERMENTERS, BOTTLES AND OTHER EQUIPMENT brewersjournal.ca

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ar

b b a J lu d b A m a Cre N

ATIO RECIPE INFORM

. . .

F L E S R U O Y M E H T Y TR

GALLONS BATCH SIZE: 5 OG: 1.047 SG FG: 1.007 SG IBU: 10 SRM: 3.1 ABV: 5.3

GRAIN BILL:

W o 4 LBS 2 RO W o 2 LBS 6 RO ED CORN AK FL o 1.5 LBS RAFOAM o 0.25 LBS CA

LE:

MASH SCHEDU

O inutes at 150 F

Mash for 60 m

E: BOIL SCHEDUL RTY

OZ LIBE o 60 MIN: 0.5 OZ LIBERTY o 10 MIN: 0.5 AND 1/2 TSP RLFLOC TABLET HI W 1 : IN M 10 o YEAST NUTRIENT

: FERMENTATION other clean,

li Ale or Escarpment Ca yeast attenuative ale pitch Ferm at yeast 1 vial of Clarity s ek O for two we F Ferment at 65

ingest beer in This is my winn . rs ge la ew br m SO4 unable to NOTES ppm Ca, 60 pp cially if you’re r profile of 60 mer beer, espe m te su wa a ng ki et rg rin ta -d ams! I A great easy last two Brew Sl ing Gold at the nn wi , vol. ns io tit compe rbonate to 2.8 h pH of 5.25. Ca as m a d an , Cl and 40 ppm

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CREAM

UL-JABBAR CREAM ABD

ABDUL-JABBAR

BREWERS JOURNAL CANADA

Hogtown Brown RECIPE INFORMATI

BATCH SIZE: 5 GALL ON OG: 1.057 SG FG: 1.010 SG IBU: 23 SRM: 22 ABV: 6.2%

ON

GRAIN BILL:

o 6.25 LBS 2 ROW o 1.25 LB MUNICH I o 0.75 LBS BROW N MALT o 0.5 LBS CRYSTA L 60 o 0.5 LBS PALE CH OCOLATE MALT o 0.5 LBS FLAKED BARLEY o 0.25 LBS GOLD EN NAKED OATS

MASH SCHEDULE:

Mash for 60 minut

es at 154oF

BOIL SCHEDULE:

o 60 MIN: 0.5 OZ NEWPORT OR OTHE R CLEAN BITTERING HOP o 10 MIN: 1 WHIRL FLOC TABLET AND 1/2 TSP YEAST NUTRIENT o 5 MIN: 1 OZ CASC ADE

FERMENTATION:

Escarpment Cali Al e (or an English/Irish ale yeast if you’d prefer a bit less attenuation) Ferment at 68oF fo r two weeks

NOTES:

Brown ales don’t ge t much love anymor e but I adore this beer. Su per malty and flavo ur ful with a nice smooth body . I target a water pr ofile of 60 ppm Ca, 40 ppm SO 4 and 60 ppm Cl, an d a mash pH of 5.35. Carbon ate to 2.3 vol.

HOGTOWN BROWN

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BREWING UP A HOMEBREW LAB

GADGET CORNER

FOR THIS GADGET CORNER, WE ARE GOING TO BRING YOU SOMETHING THAT HAS YET TO BE DONE. FOR THE NEXT FEW ISSUES WE WILL BE TAKING YOU ON THE JOURNEY OF A HOMEBREW LABORATORY BUILD THAT WILL BRING TOGETHER SOME OF THE GADGETS WE HAVE HIGHLIGHTED ALONG THE WAY WITH SOME NEW ONES THAT WILL ALL COME TOGETHER IN THE SERIES “BREWING UP A HOMEBREW LAB”.

by Sheena Strauss @knowledge.on.tap

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A

s you take a look around online and in your homebrew club, you may start to see there is more interest in learning about the quality and yeast-wrangling side of brewing.

Looking to preserve and repitch your favourite go-to strains? How about obtaining yeast from that special bottle-conditioned brew? What about having fun while exploring a whole new world of brewing by obtaining more data to really finetune your recipe creations. Are you ready to take that step? Perhaps you are even closer than you thought as you have been collecting gadgets and metric gathering instruments throughout your homebrewing journey.

I am excited to take you on this journey with me as this is something I have been wanting to do for many years. To complement the Homebrew Journal, I will be making a series of YouTube videos (for the first time ever) to capture this journey with you all and provide a more personal touch. I’ve been laying low for a bit on IG to help prep for this along with some other surprises and looking forward to seeing you all online again on @knowledge.on.tap.

Let us all learn, create, and share together! :D And who knows, maybe with your own homebrew lab you can have a competitive advantage at landing a job in a commercial brewery?

Let’s get it started!

First Thing’s First - Perfection is the Enemy of Good!

This is something I always tell myself because setting the goal of perfection is a sisyphean task, very often smacking up against the wall of diminishing returns. Failures breathe life into our knowledge base and make our foun-

dations stronger. It also helps us to be more empathetic, gain insights that can be used elsewhere, give us the confidence to face more issues that come our way and share our experiences with others. Bottom line: we will mess up AND we will learn from it and be brewtastic because of it!

Second - Save Up $$ We all know that brewing can be an expensive hobby depending on how you choose to move throughout your journey.

Depending on where your interests are, the challenges you choose to accept, the time and space you have, and financial resources available to save, it will naturally mould and shape the outlook of the lab. That said, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ right? Rolling it out in phases will help a lot for the wallet and make it way more manageable and enjoyable. You want time to play with your new toys too, right?

Taking time with a phased rollout may help financially as you may get lucky and be able to find some used equipment online, from a local university or business, in auctions, etc. And you may also be able to wait for a good deal if items go on sale. Let people know in your networks what you are looking for and see if anyone can help seek out some deals or share a connection they have.

For example, I used to work in the quality lab in pharma, and every time there was glassware that wasn’t up to the ‘audit-readiness’ standards they would throw them out. I asked if they were going to donate to a highschool lab and they weren’t at the time so I “offered” to help reduce the waste a little by taking it off their hands.

The glassware is good pharma laboratory grade borosilicate from VWR. There was even an awesome sales rep I was talking to about my homebrew lab and they had a pipette to donate to the cause!

You never know until you ask, right?

BREWERS JOURNAL CANADA

Third - Inventory Audit & Purchase Lists Before getting carried away with that dream bubble (it is fun though, right?!).

Let’s take a moment and take inventory of what we currently have for the lab and list out our basic lab needs and wants to plan and save up for.

Listing these out can prevent purchasing items you already have, remind you of what you may need to purchase, and help guide your phased journey.

For myself it looks like this:

* Note: The gadgets or equivalent are reviewed in previous Gadget Corners. Check them out online for more information. brewersjournal.ca

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Try not to be intimidated by the list above and the names used for items may not all sound very familiar right now - like with anything new or relearning something that was taught in school you are not expected to remember or know this. The goal is to give an example of my current approach and as I’ve been brewing for some time, and have worked in a quality lab, I have a few things collected.I will guide you through my journey and, soon enough, you too will become more familiar with the terms and equipment, how you can use a kitchen appliance as a home sterilizer (looking forward to testing this out), why a microscope can be useful, and so much more.

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Now on to Phase I: Source and Purchase a Lab Bench I was going back and forth on whether I wanted to build a table and make an epoxy resin top with a cool bottle cap design that also showcased other items that inspired me throughout my journey. The time and learning process alone was a bit of a non-starter for me at the time, so that was out.

Then I moved on to looking online and at auction sites to see if I could get a traditional lab bench from what you may have seen in highschool or a really awesome Laminar flow fume hood - how cool would that be, right?

I haven’t seen anything that would fit my budget so now I am set on the tried and true, easier to clean and sanitize (e.g. with 70% isopropyl alcohol) stainless steel table. Keep in mind the surface material must be chemical and flame resistant, and cleanability will be factors necessary to consider when taking into account the ability to create a clean aseptic environment for dealing with microorganisms.

As you can see from the photo, I do not have that piece yet. (in progress) Once the table is in place we get everything set up and ready, I will take you through what the next Phases will be.

Yes, I am leaving you with a cliff-hanger - to stay tuned to see what is next. ;)

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SPENT GRAINS… THREE WAYS!

brewersjournal.ca

by Ainslie Forbes

Introduction by Sheena Strauss

W

e have shown you recipes to use your brew in and even what you can do with wet spent grain, now what about how to make and use dry spent grain?

ing with a bunch of wet grain, but it can be very quick and an awesome way to add unique flavour to your cooking. I am gonna go over a few ways to process your grain efficiently and safely using what you already have in your kitchen.

For this issue of the Homebrew Journal, Ainslie will be experimenting to come up with the best way to keep your spent grains for post-brew day recipes.

The most important thing is to process your grains right away. If you let your grains sit for too long the moisture in them can cause mold growth or other pathogens. If you’re not ready to deal with your spent grains right away you can always freeze them on a sheet pan and thaw them when you are ready.

Take it away Ainslie!

Brewing can be very wasteful with all the water and grain used. An awesome way to cut down on the waste of your brewing process is to reuse your spent grains. It may seem overwhelming deal-

BREWDAY TIPS

I ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO INTRODUCE YOU TO A FRIEND AND FELLOW CO-WORKER FROM ESCARPMENT LABS’ FOOD FERMENTS DEPARTMENT, AINSLIE FORBES. HER CREATIVE, PASSIONATE SPIRIT RESONATES WHEREVER SHE IS AND YOU CAN USUALLY FIND HER RESEARCHING FOR THE NEXT PROJECT/TOOLS TO RESOURCE OR BUILD. AND IN THE NEW FLEX LAB SHE CAN BE FOUND CREATING RECIPES AND EXPERIMENTING WITH ALL SORTS OF FOOD FERMENT PROJECTS LIKE KOMBUCHA SCOBYS, SOURDOUGH, KOJI, HOT SAUCE, AND MORE. AINSLIE ALSO WORKS TIRELESSLY TO CREATE, PLAN, AND EXECUTE DELICIOUS MONTHLY FOOD FERMENTS LUNCHES AND SENSORY PANELS FOR ALL TO ENJOY!

There are three main methods which I’ll go over. Freeze drying is arguably the easiest out of the three, followed by dehydrating, and oven drying.

Methods Freeze Drying

Is by far the most foolproof. Unfortunately, it is the most out of reach for people because of the equipment needed. Most people don’t have a freeze dryer. What I love about this method though is that you can spread all of the spent grains on the trays and turn on the machine and it will be ready in the next 2 days. No need to babysit.

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Dehydrating Is another great option if you have access to one. There are also some affordable dehydrators available online or at a variety of department stores. Most dehydrators have holes big enough for the spent grain to slip through though so to help mitigate this use parchment paper cut to size and place spent grains on top. In the specific dehydrator I used, it had a hole in the middle of the tray, so I made sure to cut a hole in the parchment in the same space to allow air flow. I then set the temperature to 105℉ (40°C) and left it on for a weekend.

Oven Drying Is by far the most tedious method, but is the most attainable without buying another machine. For best results, turn your oven onto the lowest setting possible, ours was around 160°F (70°C). Spread spent grains on a baking tray that is lined with parchment paper and put them in the oven. This method will take anywhere from 8 to 12 hours (or more!) Make sure to stir every so often, I suggest every 30 minutes in order to prevent burning and or cooking. If your oven holds moisture, make sure to pay extra attention to stir often to let the steam out.

If, like me, you aren’t able to finish dehydrating the spent grain in one day you can always freeze the tray as is and start again when you have time.

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Flavour Comparisons 1.

2.

3.

Freeze Dried: Has a softer mouth feeling, Tastes the most like the original grain. Optimal to still add a nutty flavour but remain as a neutral.

Dehydrated: Has a more rough texture and tastes a little bland. Definitely, my least favourite of the three.

Oven Dried: Has the roughest texture and tastes almost caramelized. A very pleasant taste for a recipe that needs a deeper flavour.

Next Steps Although you can use the spent grains whole after dehydrating, I like turning them into spent grain flour. Using a blender, I will add the dehydrated grains and blend them into a fine powder. It can then sit in your pantry for months until you want to use them.

What to Make You can make a ton of recipes with spent grains. My favourite way to find new recipes is to modify an existing recipe. First I’ll find a recipe that I think will benefit from the nutty flavour that spent grain brings. Then I’ll check the ingredients; if the recipe has one AP flour, whole wheat flour, orwhite flour, I suggest replacing around 5-15% of it with spent grain flour. If your recipe

brewersjournal.ca

1.

2.

has a mix around 66-75% white flour or 25-34% whole wheat flour I suggest replacing all of the brown flour. You can also replace ingredients like oats with the whole spent grains. Overall, I suggest starting with a smaller replacement and gradually increase until you achieve your desired flavour without compromising the integrity. And don’t forget that you will need to increase the amount of sweetener in the recipe because the sugar that was in the grain will now be in your beer!

3.

ATTN: Make sure to write the grain profile on the container of spent grain so you can know all of the allergens.

Ainslie’s Favourites: o Spent grain pancakes: Using the “Joy of Cooking” cookbook.

o Dog treats: Make sure there are no rice hulls or hops!

o Fancy Crackers: Again, make sure grains have no rice hulls!

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FROM JANES AND JOES TO ALL-OUT PROS

RUBBING HOPS FROM OUR HOPS FIELD PRE-HARVEST. S THIS PARTICULAR DAY, I WA IN OUR SELECT ING BINES TO DO ER FIRST ESTATE WET HOP BE

Name: Sarah Casorso Location: Niagara Falls, Ontario Brewery: Bench Brewing Company Time in Professional Brewing: 5.5 years Job Title: Director of Operations and Brewmaster Time as a Homebrewer: 5+ years Daily duties: I more or less touch all facets of the manufacturing department! This includes process and recipe development, innovation, production planning and scheduling, facilities maintenance, hiring, people management and, of course, I pop in to do a brew here and there!

How did you transition from homebrewer to where you are now?

I actually got my start brewing on an 8HL brewhouse! However, I have helped out friends homebrew here and there in between production brewing.

I am where I am now partly because of ambition and partly due to being at the right place at the right time! I skipped the school part and got my start on the job, there was a lot of self-learning.

THIS WAS RIGHT WHEN WE

FIRST STARTED BREWING OUR FIRST BATCHES OF BEER AT BENCH. MARC AND I WERE

BREWING AND LEARNING THE SYSTEM TOGETHER

What inspired you to pursue this as a career?

The creative aspect is most appealing to me! It’s so satisfying getting to taste that final product you designed.

WE WERE ST ILL UNDE R CONSTRUC T ION AND S O WE HAD TO WE AR HARD H ATS!

BREWING ON OUR 4HL PILOT SYSTEM

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Fun homebrew story?

I would recommend not having rambunctious dogs around when you’re trying to finesse a good sparge and lauter over to the kettle…no tails caught fire but some small vessels were tipped. :D Advice for homebrewers?

Patience! Like anything, practice makes perfect.

Don’t get discouraged if a batch doesn’t work out, there are many variables that can make homebrewing a good beer quite challenging.

AND HE MASH T P U G STEPPIN HE END AST AT T E Y G IN H PITC OF BREW

What exciting things are you currently working on?

We have an awesome little 4HL pilot system here at Bench that has been our backbone for innovation for the last couple years. Currently, we’ve been trying out some new post-fermentation adjuncts that have turned out really well, including an Oak pilsner and an Earl Grey Blonde Ale with local honey! We’re also always trialling new fun IPA’s and fruity funk beers!

BREWERS JOURNAL CANADA